Here She Goes Again
by LPeck
Summary: Rose gets stuck in the parallel universe but it wasn't suppose to be that way, so with a little help Rose finds herself reliving her timeline. First fanfic.
1. Chapter 1

A/N First fan fiction! Reviews and comments welcome but no flames please :-) Read and (hopefully) enjoy

Chapter One: The Changing of Ways

Rose Tyler fell to her knees just seconds after the Doctors image fade away as it hit her that she was never going to see the man she loved ever again. All those times she promised him forever she'd meant it because for her there was never anything or anyone that could stop her wanting to be with him, hell she'd proved that when she opened the TARDIS. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her and pull her into a hug.

"It's alright darling, it's going to be alright" Jackie whispered to her daughter as Rose's tears soaked her top.

"N…n…no it's not! He's…he's gone! And he didn't even get to…to finish what he was saying! And I'm n…n…never going to see him again!" Rose cried.

Jackie's heart cried out for her daughter because even though she'd never really like the man and thought he put her into danger when she could have been safe and sound at home she knew Rose loved him more than anything and nothing she could say or do was going to change that.

"Come on darling let's get you home, alright? Have a cup of tea and a rest, it'll feel better in the morning."

Rose let her mother pull her to the car and put her seat belt on all the while thinking of her Doctor and how the pain in her head was getting worse, almost as though her brain was rejecting the idea of the doctor being dead. No not dead just in a different universe with no means to get to him. Gone, lost forever trapped in a world without the man she loves and no way to back.

Rose had no idea how long they'd been travelling as the car pulled up outside her new home, the mansion her and the Doctor first saw this worlds version of the Cybermen from. Even though she had stopped crying a while ago she felt as though she had merely pulled the pain more towards her, inside, just to get people to leave her alone. How could they expect her to forget the man who meant everything to her? Who had been such and huge part of her life? That she'd never wanted to leave? It made no sense.

"Darling, why don't you go have a lie down upstairs? Hum. I'll check up on you in a little while ok?" Jackie asked her daughter quietly.

Rose mumbled something and started to head towards the stairs to her bed and her nightmares. The first thing Rose noticed about the room was how _wrong_ it looked, the colours, the bed, the view everything. She missed the TARDIS's way that she changed how her room looked depending on what had happened and how she felt, or just for the fun of it sometimes.

Rose noticed that the more she thought about the TARDIS and the Doctor how the pain in her head got worse but she couldn't stop herself, and even if she could she wasn't sure she wanted. What if she forgot the Doctor? No she knew that was impossible, that she would remember him forever. She started to remember little things about her Doctor that she hadn't thought of in a while

"Nice to meet you, Rose. Now run for your life."

"Lots of planets have a North!"

"Now, don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium!"

"You _think_ you know your own name? How stupid are you?"

"The thing is, Adam, time travel is like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook, you've got to throw yourself in! Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers! Or is that just me?

"Go to your room! Go to your room! I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I'm very, very cross! Go! To! Your! Room! I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been _terrible_ last words."

"No! 'Cause this is what _I'm_ gonna do: I'm gonna rescue her! I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm gonna wipe every last _stinking_ Dalek out of the sky!"

"I'm coming to get you"

"Rose... before I go, I just want to tell you: you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? _[Pause]_ So was I!"

Then he changed into the man she knew better and fell in love with even more.

"New-new doctor"

"Rude and not ginger!"

"We just met Queen Victoria!"

"I don't age. I regenerate. But human decay; you wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to some that you…"

"Hold on a minute. You've got hands, Mr Connolly. Two big hands. So why's that your wife's job?"

"Oh, _come on!_ Did you have to? _"No turning back?_" that's almost as bad as _"Nothing could possibly go wrong"_ or _"This is going to be the best Christmas Walford's ever had!"_

"Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don't tell people I travelled through time and space with her mother!"

"I'm still just an image. No touch"

"And I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it: Rose Tyler…"

Her Doctor, those last words haunted her, she knew what he was going to say because they both knew that they had crossed a line a long time ago before he was even himself but no matter what, even with all this pain she knew she wouldn't change it for the world. And with that last thought she collapsed.

"Where am I?" Rose asked no one in particular. As she looked around what seemed to be her room in the TARDIS but knew she couldn't possibly be, just as she was about to move the door opened.

"My Wolf, at last you're here"

"Who are you? And why do you look like me?"

"I'm the TARDIS as you and my Thief call me. As for why I look like you I needed a form to contact you in and this is the form I chose."

"Ok then, say this real and not just some bizarre dream I'm having. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to bring you back. Back as there is only one of you in the many universes and you're not supposed to be here."

"But I can't get back! The Doctor said so! If I could he would have found a way"

"He can't, but my Wolf can. You controlled time and space and some of that power was left with you waiting. You can go back but if you chose to you have to know that you'll have to back to beginning, when you first met my Thief before you became my Wolf."

"Ok but what is stopping me from making the same mistakes as last time? How will I know?"

"You'll keep your memories and be the only person to know what is going to happen; I will keep an eye on the timelines and stop you from changing anything that needs to stay the same, however horrible the moments may be."

"Ok then. What do I do? How do I go back?"

"Take my hand and think back, think back to first words he ever told you."

Rose opened her eyes as she felt a hand slip into hers with only one word.

"Run!"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Thanks for the reviews I got for the last chapter in all honesty I didn't think anyone would really review or follow my story (Just shows how little confidence I have) anyway I just wanted to say thanks and I hope you like this part. As always if you would like to comment please feel free, just no flames please.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, so even if you tried to sue me all you would get is my cardboard box collection (with all three boxes!).

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Chapter Two: New Beginnings.

Rose let the Doctor drag her by the hand still trying to believe that it had worked, that she and the TARDIS were re-writing history, her history, and this time she was determined to do it right, not to get stuck, to avoid those arguments started over petty things, and to save the life's of others that she couldn't the first time round.

Rose started to pay attention as she heard the Doctor trying to pull the arm of the mannequin.

"You pulled his arm off." Remembering that was what she said that to him the first time round as well.

"Yep. Plastic."

"Ok then, so what do they want?"

"What you're not going to argue that it couldn't possibly be true because it was moving on its own or anything?" The Doctor asked slightly confused

"Nope. I saw it move on its own, how could it do that if it's not alive?" Rose asked pausing a beat before she remembered why she down there in the first place, "What happened to Wilson?" She asked before the Doctor could answer her first question.

"Who's Wilson?"

"Chief electrician."

"Wilson's dead." The Doctor replied

As the lift reached the ground floor Rose tried to remember everything that had happened that day and what was going to happen.

"Did they kill him? Why" She asked knowing the answers already but trying to act as though this was new to her and she was a little shocked.

"Yes they killed him. Now mind your eyes" The doctor said as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started to tamper with the controls.

"Who are you then? And what are they exactly? I mean you clearly know what's going on"

"They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He said pulling out a small bomb from his pockets, "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."

And with that he closed the door. Rose waited for a moment knowing he was about to open the door again, and he didn't fail to follow the pattern as the door opened again.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?"

"Rose, Rose Tyler."

"Nice to meet you, Rose Tyler. Run for your life!"

And with that he slammed the door shut again and Rose took of down the street with the arm safely in her grip. She turned around once she was what she figured was a safe distance from Hendrik's just in time to see the shop explode and go up in flames.

~~DW~~

Back home Rose watched the news while listening to her mother talk to her friends about trying to claim for compensation and how the experience had aged her. She wasn't going to argue that point travelling with the Doctor had aged her but in good way, made her see that no matter where you were from or species or gender everyone had the same rights. Until you did something unforgivable like killing millions of people at which point all bets were off. She learnt to see the best and expect it but not to be crushed when someone followed the selfish instincts first or the murderous ones depending on who it was.

"I've been phoning your mobile. You could've been dead. It's on the news and everything. I can't believe your shop went up!"

Rose looked fondly up at Mickey knowing she had to call it off with him and smiled thinking about how he was going to grow up into a man that stood on the front lines and did what he could to help instead of cowering in a corner waiting for everything to get better.

"I'm all right honestly, don't make fuss I wasn't near the shop when it went up."

Just then her mother decided to join in. "It's Debbie on the end. She knows a man on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview." Jackie said looking at Rose with a look that clearly said 'you'd better say yes'.

"Oh great! Pass the phone here!" Rose exclaimed with fake excitement.

Just as Jackie passed the phone over Rose hung up knowing she'd pissed her mother off again.

"Well, you've got to make money somehow. Your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out."

And with that the phone started ringing again. "Bev! She alive. I've told her, sue for compensation. She was within seconds of death."

As Jackie left the room Mickey noticed what Rose was drinking.

"Tea? You're drinking tea? Nah, nah, that's no good, that's no good. You're in shock. You need something stronger, come on let's go down the pub. My treat."

"Nah I'm good thanks, and never underestimate the value of a good cup of tea." Rose said leaving the room and going into her bedroom planning on getting some sleep knowing it was going to be a while before she slept again. And with a smile to herself she started getting ready for bed deciding that maybe having forewarning wasn't such a bad thing. And with that last thought went to sleep.

~~DW~~

Rose got up early eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Doctor while her mum was talking about her trying to get a job at Finch's the butchers and suing for compensation all the while not noticing that Rose was getting more and more excited. Jackie left to go a get changed and ready for the day when Rose heard the cat flap being pushed open slightly. She walked towards the door and pulled it open just as the Doctor was jumping up.

"What are you doing here?" The Doctor asked

"I live here."

"What'd you do that for?"

"Because I do. I'm only home because someone who didn't tell me him name went and blow up my job last night." Knowing the Doctor get a little kick out of it when people went around asking him 'Doctor, Doctor Who'

"I must have got the wrong signal. You're not plastic are you?" He asked as he tapped her on the head, "No, bonehead. And I did tell you who I am. Bye now."

He started to turn around as once again Rose grabbed him and pulled him inside while the Doctor gave her a look trying to figure out who exactly she was and what she was doing.

Jackie was inside her room putting her makeup on when Rose stuck her head around the door.

"Mum, it's about last night. He's part of the inquiry. Give us about 10 minutes, ok?"

Jackie turned around to answer Rose but saw the Doctor instead as he walked past her door to the living room.

"She deserves compensation."

The Doctor stopped to reply, "Oh, we're talking millions." He replied slightly sarcastically.

"I'm in my dressing gown." Jackie said flirtatiously.

"Yes, you are." The Doctor replied not knowing what was going on.

"There's a strange man in my bedroom." Jackie continued.

"Yes, there is."

"Well, anything could happen."

"No." Said the Doctor finally cottoning on.

Rose made her way to the kitchen to start making drinks for them knowing that she might as well keep to the timeline as close as possible as not to make the Doctor suspect something was wrong with her, even if he didn't know her yet.

"Don't mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?" Knowing that this Doctor preferred coffee over tea.

"Might as well, just milk thanks."

While Rose as making the coffee the Doctor start to flick through the magazines and books that had been left about the room. Rose came back into the room and saw that the Doctor was wrestling with the plastic arm she had brought home the night before, knowing what was going on she jumped towards the Doctor and started to try and pull the arm from his neck. Just as she started to pull the arm turned around and started to try and suffocate her instead, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver just in time and pointed it at the arm trying to shut it down and help Rose.

"Alright that's stopped it. Bye then." And with that walked out again.

Rose followed the Doctor outside peppering him with questions just as she did last time even if she knew the answers because she knew the Doctor just loved to show off and it would seem weird if she didn't.

"Who are you?"

"I told you, I'm The Doctor"

"Is that supposed to sound impressive?"

"Sort of, yeah."

"Come on then. You can tell me, I've seen enough. Start from the beginning, if it's this living plastic stuff how do we kill it?" Not just thinking about the living plastic but about all of the adventures for them yet to come as himself and his regenerated version.

"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead."

"So that's like radio control then, right?"

"Thought control actually, you alright?"

"Yeah I'm great, so who's controlling it then?"

"Something that wants to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"

"Yes." Rose answered simply causing the doctor to look at her once more trying to figure her out and failing.

"Ok then, this is me" He said pointing towards the TARDIS "Go home Rose Tyler, go home and forget all about me." And with that the Doctor stepped in the TARDIS and left Rose standing on the street corner counting the moments until she was home.

~~DW~~

Rose was walking towards the Pizza restaurant where she was meeting up with Mickey remembering that it wasn't Mickey but a plastic copy of him. When she arrived she sat down and drifted into her own little word as the copy tried to get her to talk about the Doctor and what he was planning. Which now she thought about it should of seemed a bit off in the first besides the weird way he was speaking the real Mickey never asked this many question of her, how did she not notice the first time? She looked up as the copy grabbed her hand.

"Babe, sugar, babe, sugar, sweetheart. You can tell me anything. Tell me what the Doctor is planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart."

"Your champagne."

"We didn't order any champagne. Now tell me where the Doctor is." The copy demanded as he squeezed her hand tighter.

"Well I could tell you…but then again you don't seem yourself Mickey. In fact you seem just a little bit plastic, if you know what I mean." Rose couldn't help replying hoping beyond hope that the nesting consciousness didn't hurt the real one.

The Doctor looked at Rose sharply again as he was once more perplexed about her and her reactions. What had made her say that? Did she know she was sitting across the table from a plastic copy of who he guessed was her boyfriend? And if so why didn't she do something before now? But instead of asking these questions he settled on saying,

"Doesn't anyone want this champagne?"

"Look we didn't order any." The copy said as he looked up and spotted the Doctor "Ah gotcha."

The Doctor started to shake the bottle vigorously as he quipped, "Oh don't mind me just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" And he popped the cork.

The cork shot right across the table and into the copy's forehead. The copy rolled the cork around in its mouth spat it out and started towards the Doctor throwing the table out of its way. The Doctor grab the copies head and gave it a tug as the rest of the customers screamed and Rose made her way towards the fire alarm.

"Don't think that's going to stop me." The copy's head said from the Doctors hands just as the fire alarms went off and Rose started shouting for everyone to make their way out quickly. Rose and the Doctor took off in the opposite directions through the kitchens towards the back alley and the TARDIS.

The Doctor sonic the door open and motioned for Rose to go through first, when they were both on the other side he sonic it shut again and started towards the TARDIS noticing that Rose was following him in what he assumed was blind faith that he was going to help her.

"Well come on in then" The Doctor said as she stood outside the TARDIS "And don't worry the assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now shut up a minute."

The Doctor made his way towards the console and started to attach the plastic head to bits of wire and the computer screen.

"You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?" Turning back to face Rose who was barely standing inside.

"It's bigger on the inside." Rose said knowing that the Doctor loved it when people said that for the first time.

"Yep."

"Well, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess it isn't from Woolworths," Rose smiled at him her tongue poking out through her teeth "and guess that it's alien."

"Yep. You know you're taking this very well, most people run around her to check." The Doctor remarked watching her lightly finger one of the columns as though this was just an average day for her.

"Well I guess I'm good at adapting. So that would make you an alien too then?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?" He asked slightly worried that it might be for some reason.

"No…You do realise that the head is melting right?"

"What? Oh no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor cried as the turned around to find that the head as indeed melting on the console, running forward he started hitting buttons and flicking levers starting the TARDIS up.

"It's fading, the signals fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there, Almost there. Come on girl, here we go!"

The TARDIS stops with a thud and the Doctor pushed past Rose and opened the doors to check if he was where he needed to be. Just to see he was on the north bank of the Thames opposite the London Eye.

"I lost the signal, I got so close." Whether he was talking to himself or Rose neither were that sure.

"We've moved, does it fly then?"

"No it disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand."

"Go on try me. Just cause I'm a blonde shop assistant for an estate doesn't mean I'm thick."

The Doctor gave Rose an appraising look. "Maybe later if we've got time."

"I'll hold you to that." Rose paused for a beat then remember that she probably should of asked about Mickey already "Did they kill him? Did they kill Mickey when they made a copy?"

"What, oh the kid? Maybe I'm not too sure I've got to find where the signal came from then I can deal with that, alright?"

"Fine no need to get snarky. I was just asking a question...How come you sound like you're from the North then?"

"Lots of planets have a North."

Rose smiled as she remember the first time he had said that and how she couldn't believe she was back with him.

"What's a police public call box then?"

"It's a telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise."

"Cool I like it, very...retro. So this living plastic what's it got against us?"

"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner! "

"How do we stop it?"

The Doctor pulled the bottle of anti-plastic out from his pocket and showed it to Rose with a grin on his face.

"What's that then, anti-plastic?" Rose asked raising one eyebrow in a manner that said 'really?'

"Yep, anti-plastic. One bottle of this and goodbye Nestene Consciousness. But I've got to find it. How can you hide a transmitter that big in London?"

Rose remembering what happened last time just looked over his shoulder at the London Eye and started to count the seconds to see how long it actually took him to see something so very clear that even she saw it the first time round before he managed it, and he was supposed to be the genius!

"It's huge and round and slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible. What? What?" The Doctor asked as he turned to face Rose looking slightly amused and staring across the bank at something. Rose on the other hand couldn't believe how long it was taking the Doctor to figure it out, he basically describe the London Eye and looked at it while trying to guess what she was looking at and still the penny hadn't dropped, she wondered how much longer it would of taken him if she wasn't there to help.

"What? What is it? What?" The Doctor asked again as he looked over his shoulder again, then back at Rose who raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the London Eye. He looked around once more and finally saw it.

"Oh. Fantastic!"

The Doctor and Rose took off at a run across Westminster Bridge "Think about it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables."

"The breast implants." Rose muttered under her breath.

"Still we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

"What like down here?" Rose asked pointing towards the man hole she knew they needed.

"Looks good to me, let's go." and the Doctor grabbed her hand and ran towards the man hole. The Doctor soniced the cover off and started climbing down the ladder into a brick built area with lots of chains hanging from the walls. They went through another door to a multi-levelled chamber were they saw the Nestene Consciousness inside a huge vat.

"Well I'm gonna guess and go with that you're going to talk to the Consciousness first before you tip in the anti-plastic?" Rose whispered to the Doctor.

"Yes. I have to, if there's a way to end this peacefully I'll take that option any day. You ok with that?" The Doctor asked because he couldn't quite figure her out, who would offer a peaceful option to a creature she just found out wanted to killed the entire planet. Not many of his companions understood that.

"Yes, it's always better to try and find a peaceful way out if possible, otherwise what makes us better than our enemies who don't?"

The Doctor turned away from Rose and turned his thoughts to the matter at hand. He walked over to the catwalk over seeing the vat as Rose made her way to Mickey who was cowering in a corner.

"I seek an audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation."

Rose looked up sharply as she heard the Consciousness reply to the Doctor not with noises that she had heard last time but with actual words.

"Thank you do I have permission to approach?"

Rose stopped paying attention at this point and noticed that once again Mickey was clinging to her waist like a child, at this moment she really noticed the difference between the newer Mickey and this Mickey.

"Mickey, Mickey come on pay attention go over there and wait for me and the Doctor to come and grab you, ok? Mickey did you hear me?"

She pushed Mickey away and waited for the Consciousness to make the next move.

"Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp shunt technology, So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect that you shunt off?"

As the Consciousness replied Rose noticed a pair of plastic dummies slowly making their way towards the Doctor.

"Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking!" The doctor shouted at the Consciousness tried to interrupt, "This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please just go."

Rose watched as the dummies grabbed the Doctor and took the vial of anti-plastic from his pocket.

"I wasn't going to use it, it was just insurance. I'm not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not. What do you mean?"

The door hiding the TARDIS opened and Rose knew she needed to act soon she pushed Mickey off her again and whispered in his ear "Go to blue box, ok. I'll be fine and I'll meet you there." And ran towards the chains grabbing an axe on the way.

"No. Oh, no honestly, no. Yes that's my ship. That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them! Rose! Rose get out! It's starting the final phase, it's starting the invasion. Just leg it out of here! It's activating the signal!"

But Rose had no intention of leaving her Doctor not then and most definitely not now. Rose armed with her axe started hitting away at the chain trying to get it free,

"I've still got no A-levels, no job, no future, and the man I love just left me in a parallel world because I let go. No more." and with a final swing the chain came lose. "But what I have got still is Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I got the bronze."

And she grabbed the chain and swung along the side of the catwalk kicking the two dummies holding the Doctor, dropping the anti-plastic into the vat. She started swinging backwards as the Doctor shouted her name and grabbed her around the waist holding her still and pulling her into safety.

"Now we're in trouble." The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand as they ran towards the stairs to get the TARDIS as they got inside pulling Mickey along with them they heard the Consciousness scream. Once inside Rose phoned her mum to see if she was alright.

"Rose, did you see them?"

Rose noticed her mum didn't sound as scared as last time so she started to hope that maybe because she acted a little faster less people died.

"I was in town and the shop dummies came alive, everybody started screaming and running but then they just stopped. People are saying it was a student prank gone wrong."

Rose let a breathe she didn't even realise she was holding, smiled and hung up.

As the TARDIS stopped Mickey ran outside to hide behind the bins, Rose and the Doctor walked out calmly as though this was everyday stuff for them, which in all truth it was. Rose made her way towards Mickey who once again grabbed hold of her waist like a child.

"Fat lot of good you were." She said turning to face the Doctor.

"Nestene Consciousness? Easy."

"Yeah right! You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."

"Yes I would. Thank you. Right then, I'll be off, unless of course, er, I don't know maybe, you could come with me? This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It can anywhere in the whole universe, free of charge."

Rose smiled her tongue just poking out, it took everything she had not to say yes and run full pelt at him and the TARDIS but there was a little tingle in the back of her mind letting her know it was important that the Doctor asked twice.

"Don't. He's an alien. He's a thing." Mickey added rudely.

"He can't come. What'd you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere. The whole of space just waiting to be explored."

"Yeah...umm...I can't. I've...err...I've got to go and find my mum and somebody's got to look after this stupid lump, so..."

"Ok then. See you around." And with that he closed the doors and Rose started to panic as the TARDIS dematerialised hoping that he would come back for her again.

"Mickey, Mickey pay attention. I want to break up."

"But...but why? We're nice." Mickey asked confused.

"Mickey one day you're going to find someone that means the world to you and she won't ever want to let you go but that's not me. I don't want to hurt you anymore than I have to, I can't do this anymore, I'm sorry." Rose turned around as she heard the TARDIS materialising.

"By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?" The Doctor asked as he poked he head out the doors.

"Bye Mickey. I gonna gone a while." And she kissed him on the cheek and ran towards her future and the man she loves.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N I own nothing, so if anyone sued me all they could win is my impressive three cardboard boxes and two thirds of a Christmas tree.

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Chapter Three: The End of the World Take Two

"Right then Rose, where do you want to go? Forwards or backwards in time, it's your choice."

"Forwards, definitely forwards."

"How far?"

"How far can you take me?" Rose asked the Doctor cheekily.

"How far do you think you can handle?" The Doctor replied "One hundred years? Ten thousand years?"

"You think you're so impressive." Rose teased him.

"I am so impressive!"

"You wish"

"Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go. Hold on!" The Doctor warned her just as the TARDIS shook violently as the TARDIS entered the Time Vortex.

"Right we're here" The Doctor announced as the TARIDS stooped moving.

"Where are we and _when_ are we?" Rose asked as she started to feel excited because even though she'd already done this she still felt like a kid on Christmas morning. Rose walked down the ramp and pushed the door open and looked at the large shutter wall blocking the view of Earth from her. The Doctor only steps behind took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it towards the control panel lifting the shutter up.

"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year 5.5/apple/26. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day." The Doctor looked at his watch to make sure he got his timing right. "This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."

Rose just looked out the window in amazement because not matter how many time she saw this view she still found it completely breath taking.

Rose looked at the Doctor when she heard the computer announce the arrival of the guest.

"Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for Fifteen Thirty Nine. Followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite."

The Doctor and Rose walked along the corridor towards the main room when it struck Rose that she should probably ask about the guests.

"So when it says guests, does it mean people?"

"Depends on what you mean by people."

"You know people, walking talking people."

"Well yes if you follow that definition."

"What's that supposed to mean."

"Nothing just that you're going to meet your first lot of aliens."

"Oh, that is so cool! Hurry up then I don't want to miss a moment."

"You really are a very excited person aren't you?"

"Yep" Rose replied popping the 'p' "So what are they all doing here anyway?"

"This is an observation deck, the great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn."

"Why?" Rose asked as they reach the next door and the Doctor soniced it open.

"For fun." The Doctor replied easily as the door opened and they walked through. "Although when I say the great and the good, what I actually mean is the rice."

"Wait but they did this on Newsround Extra once, the Sun expanding that takes hundreds of years."

"Millions, but the planet's now property on the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there? Gravity satellites holding back the Sun.

"Wow talk about an upgrade, from protecting some forests to the whole planet. Talk about ambition." Rose looked at the Doctor quickly to see that he was smiling. "But the planet looks the same. That's how it looked last time I was down there, I thought the continents would of continued to shift and stuff."

"They did and the Trust just shift them back. That's a classic Earth. But now the money's run out, nature gets to take over again."

"How long?" Rose asked hoping that this time she could actually watch the Earth go so that it wasn't all for nothing.

"About half an hour and then the planet gets roasted."

As Rose looked out at the Earth a thought hit her and suddenly she realised why the Doctor took her here. He brought her here because he was still in pain, pain over his planet burning and being left alone. She looked at the Doctor quickly and saw that beneath his cool exterior he was clearly in pain over what he had to do. And that made her sad because she knew if she could she would take his pain away just for a moment so he didn't feel guilty over something that wasn't completely his fault.

"So where did all the people go then" Rose asked to break the silence.

"Out into space, to other planets."

"Oh so it's just me then."

Before the Doctor could reply a blue skinned person with golden slit eyes walked up to them.

"Who the hell are you!?" He demanded just as rudely as the first time Rose noticed.

"Oh, that's nice, thanks." Rose replied before the Doctor could.

"But how did you get in? This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

"That's me. I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation." The Doctor pulled out the psychic paper to show the steward. "Look. There, you see? Its fine, you see? The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler. She's my plus one. Is that alright?" The Doctor put away his psychic paper as the steward was answering.

"Well, obviously. Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy." And the steward left them and headed towards a lectern . The Doctor turn towards Rose, "The paper's slightly psychic. It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time."

Rose was about to ask a question when the steward starting speaking, "We have attendance the Doctor and Rose Tyler. Thank you. All staff to their positions." And with that Rose watched as a lot of little blue people rushed around them to get ready.

"Hurry, now, thank you. Quick as you can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honoured guest? Representing the Forest of Cheam, we have trees, namely Jabe, Lute and Coffa."

Rose watched as Jabe entered remembering how the Doctor told her how she died helping to save everybody here and Rose decided that even though she didn't know her she wasn't going to die this time round.

"There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon." Rose watched as she remember that when he came she would have to move behind the Doctor so he got the spit in the eye this time around.

"And next, from the Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme." As the group of black-robed people entered Rose remembered to watch out for them cause she didn't want another almost roasting in the observation room.

"The inventors of Hypo-slip Travel Systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you."

The Doctor looked at Rose to see how she was taking this, he knew he had thrown her in at the deep end but he was curious to see how she would react, if she would continue to puzzle him or react in the way he guessed she would.

"Cal Spark Plug. Mister and Mrs Pakoo. The Ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light."

Rose and the Doctor stopped watching the door as they noticed that Jabe, Lute and Coffa were making their way towards them.

"The Gift of Peace. I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather." Jabe handed the pot with the cutting to the Doctor who passed it to Rose while he started patting himself down trying to find a gift to give her in return.

"Thank you. Yes, gifts. Errr,"

Rose decided to speak up because as funny as it was to watch the Doctor flounder about she knew that 'the air from my lungs' was like going up to someone a snogging them.

"We give you a cutting of me." Rose said as she pulled out three hairs and passed them to Jabe.

When Jabe and the other two left the Doctor looked at Rose, "What was that about?"

"Well she gave us a cutting and I have enough hair. Besides what were you going to do? The air from your lungs? Wouldn't that be like giving her a good snog?" Rose teased

"Well…ummm…good idea." The Doctor looked away wondering how she could she possibly know that was what he was going to do?

"From the Silver Devastion, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe." Rose looked up as a large glass case barely made it through the doorway. It contained a giant head with straggly hair and squinting eyes, Rose thought about the Face of Boe and just how old he could be as she heard the Doctor speak.

"The Moxx of Balhoon." Rose quickly but quietly moved behind the Doctor ever so slightly.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily salivas." And spat right in the Doctors eye. The Doctor turned to see Rose trying not to laugh and decided to get a little pay back so he grabbed a few hairs and gave them a quick tug.

"Thank you, I give you the gift of a cutting from my companion." Rose stopped trying not to laugh when The Moxx of Balhoon left and the Doctor just raised an eyebrow. Rose stopped laughing when the black robed group approached them.

"Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. I give you a cutting from my companion." And handed them the hairs that Rose had just handed him.

A large metal hand holding a small metal ball appeared in front of the Doctor, "A gift of peace in all good faith." And they walked away.

"And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, and tress and multiforms, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen."

Rose watched as the bitchy trampoline enter the room of the people she was about to try and kill.

"Oh, now, don't stare. I know, I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how think I am. Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturise me. Moisturise me."

After one of her attendants sprayed her she continued her monologue, "Truly I am the last Human. My father was a Texan, my Mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honour them and to say goodbye. Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry. But behold I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh don't laugh. I'll get laugher lines. And here another rarity." While the workers were bringing it in Rose was trying not to laugh at Cassandra she was so concerned with being human she was actually quite thick about the Earth. Rose watched as they wheeled in the 1950's juke box in.

"According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!" When Rose heard Tainted Love start to play she quickly left the room before she dissolved into a fit of giggles in front of everybody. And laughing was just how the Doctor found her in the observation room.

"Hey, wondered where you stumbled off to. What's so funny?"

"Sorry, but its Cassandra. Imagine Tainted Love ever being considered classical music. I had to leave before I started laughing."

"What you'd think then?"

"I think it's amazing. I mean here I am 5 billion years in the future when yesterday all I was thinking about was what I should have for dinner and where was I going to get my next job, this really puts it into perspective…So you going to tell me why everybody in there was speaking English?"

"They're not, you just hear English. It's a gift of the TARDIS. The telepathic field, gets inside your head and translates."

"Ok. So tell me Doctor where are you from?" Rose asked trying to get the Doctor to open up more this time because even though she loves him and knows some of his past she still thought that maybe if opened up more now then he might realise how he feels sooner rather than later.

"Everywhere really." The Doctor answered evasively.

"Well I'm gonna guess you were born on actual planet. Why won't you just tell me the name?"

Rose watched the Doctor as the thought through what to say true he could tell her to mind her own business but then again he felt that there was something about Rose that wasn't ordinary, shown by the fact he asked her twice. That still bothered him actually, why had he asked twice? In the past when people said no it was off to the next adventure, so what made her so different?

"Gallifrey."

"Ok then." Rose pulled her phone out and looked at her signal bar and quipped "Just a little bit out of range then, I guess."

The Doctor took her phone out of her hands thankful for the change in subject and started to take her phone apart.

"With a little bit of jiggery pokery."

"Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?"

"Yeah I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?"

"Nah I took hullabaloo, came first too." Rose answered changing her answer slightly from the first time but she couldn't help it.

"Oh. There you go."

Rose took her phone from the Doctor and decided to phone her mum to let her know she was alright.

"Mum?"

"Oh, what is it?" Jackie asked assuming that Rose was calling her to complain. "What's wrong? What have I done now? Oh this red top's falling to bits. You should get your money back. Go on what did you want. There must be something you never phone in the middle of the day."

"No reason just wanted to make sure you where alright."

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason just wanted to check. What day is it?"

"Wednesday, all day. You got a hangover? Oh, I tell you what. Put a quid in that Lottery syndicate. I'll pay you back later."

"Yeah, umm, mum, I was just calling to let you know I'm going travelling. Everything's fine so there's no need to panic. I just might not get the chance to phone home but I'll be alright."

"Rose, what are you chattin about? Going travelling? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Top of the world in fact. Bye mum." And with that Rose hung up.

"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill."

"Thank you Doctor." And Rose threw herself at the Doctor as she gave him a hug, the Doctor stood there awkwardly for a moment then decided to just give and he hugged her back. As they were in the middle of their hug the space station shook and the Doctor looked up, "That's not supposed to happen."

The Doctor and Rose made their way back to the main room while the Doctor explained to Rose, "That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think Jabe? Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty hertz. That dodgy or what?"

"It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Where's the engine room?"

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your wife."

"She's not my wife."

"Partner?"

"No."

"Concubine?"

"Nope."

"Prostitute?"

"Whatever the hell I am, I must be invisible if you think it's alright to call a person a hooker in front of them." Rose snapped at Jabe because even though she didn't have anything against her personally people calling her a hooker just pissed her off. "Tell you what, you two go do whatever you planned on doing. I'm going to catch up with the family. Quick word with Michael Jackson." Rose started to walk away as the Doctor called back.

"Don't start a fight."

"Now would I do that?"

"Don't make me answer that one." The Doctor replied and turned towards Jabe and offered her his arm "I'm all yours then."

As Rose watched them leave she could help but call out "And I want you hope by midnight."

~~DW~~

Rose walked towards Cassandra getting hold of her temper as she went.

"Soon, the sun will blossom into a red giant, and my home will die. That's where I used to live, when I was a little boy, down there. Mummy and Daddy had a little house built into the side of the Los Angeles Crevice. I'd have such fun."

"What happened to everybody else? The human race moved on didn't they? To other planets."

"They say mankind has touched every star. I am the last pure human though. The others mingled, oh, they call themselves New humans and Proto-humans and Digi-humans, even Humanish, but you know what I call them? Mongrels."

"But Cassandra the point of the human race is that we move forward, we adapt, we change for the better. Instead you stayed behind and clung to the idea of being pure, and look at you now, you're just lipstick and skin Cassandra. Whatever as human about you was taken away the moment you became this." And Rose turned around and walked away, she was about to leave the room but she remembered what had happened the first time she did that and had no desire to repeat that experience anytime soon. So instead she chose to stand near the wall looking out at the Earth as it slowly got closer to the sun.

~~DW~~

"The planet's end. Come gather, come gather. Bid farewell to the cradle of civilisation. Let us mourn her with a traditional ballad" Cassandra signalled one of her attendants who put on Toxic by Britany Spears and Rose had to pull herself to together as a little giggle slipped out, how could Cassandra be so thick? She wondered for someone who claims to be the 'last human' she doesn't know a damn thing about the planet she claims to love so much.

Jabe and the Doctor entered the room in silence, Rose was the first to notice them and turned around to see the Doctor and noticed he had a haunted look in his eyes again.

"The metal machine confirms it." Jabe spoke first "The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One."

"How is that possible? Our private rooms are protected by a coded wall. Moisturise me, moisturise me."

"Summon the steward at once!" The Moxx of Balhoon demanded .

"I'm afraid the steward is dead." Rose looked at the Doctor when Jabe said that, that explained the haunted looked. He was feeling guilty, Rose felt even worse because she forgot. She forgot that the steward died. How could she? Now her Doctor was going to live with that guilt all because she was too busy laughing at Cassandra.

"Who killed him?"

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face." Cassandra pitched in.

"Talk to the skin, talk to the skin." Rose muttered under her breath.

The Doctor looked at her hearing what she had said and gave her another calculating look.

"Easy way to find out. Someone bought their little pet on board. Let's send him back to master."

The Doctor place the spider down on the ground and gave it little kick to start it going and watched as the spider headed straight for Cassandra, well wasn't that interesting maybe Rose was right the Doctor wondered, but before he could think any more on the subject the spider turned around and headed towards The Adherents of the Repeated Meme.

"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. J'accuse!"

"Oh come on." Rose muttered and the Doctor shot her another look.

"That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop to think about it." He went over to the Adherents, as the leader tried to hit him the Doctor merely grab his arm and gave it a tug. "A Repeated Meme is just an idea, and that's all they are an idea." He held on to the arm as the Adherents fell to the ground. "Remote control Droids. Nice little cover for the real trouble maker. Go on, Jimbo. Go home." The Doctor gave the spider another nudge with his foot and the spider scuttled off to Cassandra.

"I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed. At arms!" With that command her attendants raised their spray guns towards the Doctor.

"What you going to do? Moisturise me?" He questioned in a mocking tone.

"Yes, with acid. Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as tax free gifts past every coded wall. I'm not just a pretty face."

"Oh and you're not even that." Rose couldn't help but put in. "Sabotaging the ship while you're still inside it? How stupid's that?"

"You pretty little twit. I was hoping to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous."

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money. Guess you were right Doctor, times haven't changed that much after all."

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human Doctor. Me, not that freaky little blonde girl of yours!"

"Arrest her! The infidel" The Moxx of Balhoon shouted out.

"Oh, shut it pixie. I've still got my final option."

"Three minutes until Earth death" The computer rang out.

"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? Burn baby, burn."

"Then you'll burn with us Cassandra."

"Oh, I'm sorry to disappoint you tree. I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders, activate." The whole floor shook as they felt a series of small explosions being set off. "Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me."

"Safety System failing." The computer rang out.

"Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings." And Cassandra and her attendants beamed out.

Rose made her way to the Doctor "Is it me or do you really not like her? So what the plan?" She asked.

"We have to reset the system."

"Only the steward would know how." Jabe said.

"No we can do it by hand. There must be a system restore switch. Jabe, Rose come on your with me. You lot just chill." And the Doctor, Rose and Jabe left the room.

The trio made their way down towards the engine Rose and Jabe walking slightly behind the Doctor when Jabe grabbed Rose's arm.

"What are you? When I scanned you earlier the metal machine had more trouble naming you than it did the Doctor, what species are you?" Jabe asked Rose in a whisper so the Doctor wouldn't hear.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm human. I was born on Earth, raised on Earth. I'm 100% human."

"Not according to the metal machine, according to that you are something else. In a state of being something, frozen part human part unknown."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, but can you not tell the Doctor. He'd just panic and worry and he doesn't need to do that, I promise."

"I will keep your secret for now." And Jabe walked ahead to catch up with the Doctor leaving Rose behind to ponder what Jabe had just told her. Was she changing? Was she becoming Bad Wolf again? What was happening? She tried to push these thoughts out of her mind when she felt the TARDIS give a comforting nudge letting know that whatever it was the TARDIS must know so it couldn't be that bad.

The Doctor noticed Rose and Jabe whispering as they made their way to the engine room but decided not to worry about it and instead focus at the task in hand.

"Earth death in Two Minutes. Heat levels rising. Heat levels critical." The computer rang out as Rose snapped out of her thoughts as they reached the engine room.

"And guess where the switch is." The Doctor said staring across the room at a switch being blocked by the huge cooling fans. The Doctor noticed the breaker lever and pulled it down making the fans slow down a little, he let go and started to walk towards the fans but as soon as he let go the fans started picking speed up.

"External temperature five thousand degrees." The computer rang out.

Rose noticed Jabe heading towards the lever to grab it but Rose was quicker, Jabe raised a questioning eyebrow at Rose.

"Jabe if you hold the lever you'll burn. And I'm not going to let you die when I can hold it. Go back upstairs and try to keep everyone calm. Move them away from the windows though, in to the corridors."

Jabe was about to protest when the Doctor said, "Rose it right Jabe, you don't have to be here. Go and keep them safe."

"Ok, I'll go but," she got closer to Rose and whispered to her, "I may not know what you are but it will get too hot in here for you too." She said you concern in her eyes.

"Don't worry about me. And you," she said turning to face the Doctor "stop wasting time, Time Lord."

"How did you know I was a Time Lord. I never told you that."

"Oh, umm, Jabe told me. But that was all she said and she felt real bad about it afterwards. Look can't we talk about this later. It's getting a bit hot in here." Rose said trying to turn attention away from her slip up.

The Doctor decided to let it go and made his way towards the fans. Rose was holding down the lever the best she could but it was getting harder and harder as it got hotter. She could feel the skin of her hands breaking as she tried to hold it in place just for a little longer. The Doctor was now at the last set of fans and turned around to see Rose was barely holding on in this heat and he hoped she would make it he turned around knowing the only way she would was if he got the shields up in time. He ran through the last fan barely making it as he grabbed the lever the other side and shouted "raise shields!" Rose looked at her hands as she let go of the lever to inspect the damage done and was surprised to see what looked like tiny scrapes instead of huge bleeding gashes she expected to see. She looked up as the Doctor approached, they shared a look and ran back towards the observation deck hand in hand.

~~DW~~

When they got there Rose was happy to see that this time round everybody made it and shared a happy smile with Jabe who was currently talking to her fellow trees.

"You know what Rose?" The Doctor asked turning towards her.

"What Doctor."

"I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby."

Rose made her way towards the ostrich egg "like in a fake ostrich egg?" She asked.

"Fantastic Rose." He reached over to take the egg from her hand and smashed it. "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, than a teleportation feed can be reversed." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver changed the setting and push the button watching as Cassandra reappeared.

"Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces!" Cassandra laughed as she was beamed into the room. "Oh" She stopped laughing as she realised where she was.

"The last human." The Doctor said coldly.

"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This umm makes you eligible to join er join the Human Club."

"A person died Cassandra and more almost followed. You tried to kill them."

"It depends of your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter"

"And creak?" Rose interrupted.

"What?"

"She said creak. You're creaking."

"What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturise me, moisturise me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature."

"Have pity! Moisturise me! Oh, oh Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything."

"Help her" Rose whispered to the Doctor hoping that maybe if they did help her then she wouldn't have to go through what happen on New Earth again.

"Everything has its time and everything dies."

"I'm too young!" Cassandra screamed as her last words as she exploded apart again.

~~DW~~

"The Earth, it's gone." Rose said as she and the Doctor looked out of the window as the remains of the Earth floated passed them. "We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking."

"Everything has it time Rose. Everything must die."

"It isn't dying that should make me worried." Rose sighed

"What do you mean" the Doctor asked looking down at her.

"Being alone, that's the scary part. Being left all alone with no one else who understands." Rose said quietly thinking back to Bad Wolf bay and her goodbye with the Doctor.

"You sound like you know what you're talking about." The Doctor said looking into her eyes and was shocked to see the raw pain shining through them, they looked close to what his did. But just as quickly as he saw it the shutters came down and Rose looked away.

"Nah, what do I know, eh? I'm just an 19 years old estate girl." Rose said.

The Doctor took her hand "Come on, I've got something to show you." And they walked away hand in hand.

~~DW~~

The Doctor pushed the TARDIS doors open to show Rose London, a current London with people pushing each other about all getting on with their life as though nothing else mattered.

"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before it's time."

"What happened?"

"There was a war and we lost."

Rose knew how hard it was for the Doctor to talk about this so she slipped her hand in his hoping he would take small comfort in the small gesture.

"What happened to your people? To the other Time Lords?"

"I'm the last Rose, I'm the last one in the whole universe. I'm left travelling on my own because there is no one else."

"There's me."

"You've seen how dangerous it can be. Do you want to go home?"

"I want…" I want to stay with you forever and travel in time and space with you so you never have to be alone again, I want to take away your pain Rose wanted to say but settle on, "Oh, can you smell chips?"

The Doctor laughed at the sudden change in topic, "Yeah I can."

"I want chips."

"Me too." The Doctor said laughing again and Rose decided then and there she would do whatever she could to make him laugh more often.

"Right then, before you get me back in your magic box, chips it is, and you can pay."

"No money.

"What sort of date are you? Come on then tightwad, chips are on me. We've only got five billion years until the shops close." And Rose and the Doctor walked away hand in hand laughing at everything and nothing in particular.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Sorry for the lateness of this update, it's actually been sitting on my laptop for the last few days but in my defence work has been crazy with Christmas coming up and I have had the flu. Although I do promise to try and update every week if not more.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, so please don't sue. But if you do you could only win, my impressive three cardboard boxes, two thirds of a Christmas, and a three year old Christmas pudding.**

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Chapter Four: The Unquiet Dead In The Silence Of Christmas

The TARDIS was shaking quite violently as Rose was waiting for the Doctor to tell her to push the buttons trying to stay upright, if there was one thing constant about her Doctors it was that they both need driving lessons for the TARDIS!

"Hold that one!" The Doctor shouted at Rose breaking her train of thought.

"I'm holding it down!" She shouted back.

"Well, hold them both down then."

Rose knew she was never going to reach so she flung her leg up onto the button just in time, "are you sure this is going to work?"

"Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"

"Like you might overshot it!" Rose laughed.

"Oi! I'll have you know that if I say we're going to 1860, we're going to 1860!"

"I'll believe that when I see it." Rose said still laughing.

~~DW~~

The TARDIS and the Rose and the Doctor found themselves on the floor laughing, "Blimey! Do you even know how to drive?"

"Of course, it was just a rough landing. I'd like to see you do better."

"No, its fine. Just need to bring a cushion with me next time." Rose laughed smiling with her tongue poking out.

"Well nothing's broken, so I say it was a success."

"Ok." Rose said as she started to walk way towards the wardrobe.

"Where are you going?"

"The wardrobe, I can't exactly go out looking like this. It might start a riot or something, actually sounds fun, let's go."

"No, go change. The wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under stairs, past the bins, fifth door on left. And be quick about it."

The Doctor set about tinkering with the TARDIS while Rose ran to the wardrobe and grabbed the dress she wore last time knowing it would look fantastic on her. After Rose applied the finishing touches she turned to look at herself in the three-way mirror noticing that this time round she favoured lighter colours and had a softer look about her than her younger self did. With a final twirl she decided she was ready and made her way back to the Doctor. The Doctor was getting impatience waiting for Rose wondering how long it could possible take to put on a dress and put her hair up when he heard a noise above him and saw Rose, he had to catch his breath for a moment as both his hearts did a funny little flip, "You look beautiful," damn he panicked had he really just said that so for some damage control he tacked on the end, "For a human." Instead of being insulted Rose just laughed and ran towards the doors. Rose opened the doors to see the snow, she jumped out the TARDIS and in the snow laughing as she did it, completely happy that she playing in the snow and this time she was going to get the Doctor with a snowball. Just as she had that thought she noticed the Doctor coming out and locking the TARDIS.

"So what'd ya think?" The Doctor asked as Rose bent down and started gathering snow.

"Oh, it's about to get a lot better." Before the Doctor could ask what she meant Rose threw a snowball at him and it got him right in the face. The Doctor just looked at Rose as she started to laugh wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into, who was she throwing a snowball at him? No one had done that before, but maybe that was a good thing? He thought pushing the boundaries, testing them. Before he could think any more on the subject he looked around and saw a newspaper with the date on it.

"Rose, I may have the flight a bit wrong."

"I don't care."

"It's not 1860, it's 1869."

"I don't care."

"And it's not Naples."

"I don't care."

"It's Cardiff."

Rose stopped and looked at the Doctor, "Don't be snob, Cardiff will do great things one day."

Before the Doctor could reply they heard a scream, "Now that's more like it!" The Doctor grabbed Roses' hand and ran towards the theatre.

As Rose and Doctor ran in to the theatre they were just in time to see a blue gas exiting the body of an elderly lady and go into a gas lamp.

"Did you see where it came from?" The Doctor asked.

Rose noticed Sneed and Gwyneth picking up the corpse and making their way to the door, knowing she had to chase them she took off, shouting back to the Doctor, "Doctor! They're taking the lady, I'll go after them."

"Just be careful!"

Rose followed Sneed and Gwyneth to their carriage, "Wait. Me and the Doctor can help."

"Oh, don't worry miss. Me and the master will deal with this, it's a tragedy really, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary."

"That's a lie and you know it, she's cold. She's dead. Come on me and the..." Before she could finish she felt Sneed place a cloth over her mouth and the last thought she had before she passed out was, oh great this again, why don't people take help when it's offered.

~~DW~~

Rose awoke to find herself once more lying a table, she turned her head and saw that the room had the two bodies still in it, "Oh crap, why does this always happen to me?" She muttered under her breath as she climbed down and made her way to the door.

"Doctor, Doctor! Get me out of here." Rose shouted through the door, she turned as she heard a noise coming from behind her and noticed that the corpses were coming alive.

"Doctor, Doctor! Let me out of here! Let me out! Help! Doctor!"

Just as the corpse grabbed Rose the Doctor kicked the door, "I think this is my dance." He quipped as he pulled Rose away and proceed to punch him.

"Hi Doctor, who's your friend?"

"Rose meet Charles Dickens, Charles meet Rose Tyler."

"Hi Charlie."

"Ok so now we're all introduced, who are you then? What do you want?" The Doctor asked the blue gas.

"Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" It replied sounding as though it as speaking with several voices at once.

They watched as the gas left the corpses and returned to the gas lamp.

~~DW~~

"First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old pervert." Rose shouted at Sneed trying not to give him slap. The Doctor was finding it all greatly amusing watching Rose shout at Sneed, and Sneed just sitting there like a school boy who had been caught with his hands in the cookie jar.

"I won't be spoken to like this." Sneed replied angrily

"Oh yes you will! Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk! Or I'll give you one hell of a slap!"

"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs," Sneed looked quickly up and saw no one was too pleased with that term being used, "Err, the dearly departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot!" Dickens exclaimed loudly, Rose rolled her eyes. God that man could be dense he just saw it with his own two eyes yet he was unwilling to believe because it ruined his view of the world.

"You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but the hang on to scraps. One old fellow, who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."

"Morbid fancy."

"Oh, Charles, you were there." The Doctor protested.

"I saw nothing but an illusion."

"Charlie, if you're going to deny it, don't waste our time. Just shut up." Rose snapped feed up with his denial.

The Doctor shot Rose a look wondering why she was being so short with Charles, "What about the gas?"

"That's new sir. Never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stringer, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."

"Rift?" Rose questioned.

"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations. Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

The room all looked up when they heard the door slam shut, "Well that's Charlie boy gone then." Rose muttered.

~~DW~~

Rose went into the kitchen to start the washing up while the Doctor went after Charles to try and convince him to come back and to open up his mind to what was right in front of him.

"Oh, please miss, you shouldn't be helping. It's not right." Gwyneth said interrupting her thoughts.

"Don't be daft, I want to help it isn't like I haven't done this before. Sneed works you too hard, you should ask for a raise."

"I already get eight pounds a year miss, I couldn't ask for anymore, truth be told I would have been happy with six."

"So, did you go to school then?"

"Of course I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday nice and proper."

"What only once a week? Sounds better than what I had to do."

"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second of it."

"Me too, everyone I knew did."

"Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own."

"I did that all the time. I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. We used to go and look at boys."

"Well, I don't know much about that, miss." Gwyneth said slightly shocked and appalled by Rose's forwardness.

"Come on, times haven't changed that much. I bet you've done the same, I bet you've got your eye on someone."

"I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile."

"I love a good smile. Good smile, nice bum." Rose laughed.

"Well, I've never heard the like, you say the strangest things miss. You've got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like a wild thing."

"Maybe I am, maybe that's a good thing. I may look posh right now but believe me I'd rather be in the kitchen so I know where I stand than out there mixing with rich snobs. You need a bit more in life than Mr Sneed. Like maybe that boy, ask him in for a cup of tea or something." Rose suggested.

"Oh, now that's not fair, he's not that bad, Mr Sneed. He was very kind to me, to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I know what it's like to lose a parent. I lost my dad a while back."

"Thank you miss. But I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be blessed. They're waiting for me, and so is your dad."

"Thank you, I like to think that maybe he's alright just not in this universe, but somewhere out there."

"You've been thinking about him more lately, more than ever."

"How do you know all this Gwyneth?"

"Mr Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, miss."

"Nope" Rose said popping the 'p' "No servants for me, unless you count the time I did some work as one for some cash to help my mum out."

"You a servant, miss? I don't believe that. But you're such a long way from home."

"Yeah, I'm from London."

"I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf." Gwyneth backed away from Rose with a shocked looked on her face. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, miss."

"It's alright, you didn't mean to, It's fine."

"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it, that it wasn't right."

The Doctor walked in having heard the last part of their conversation, "But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?"

"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head. Calling out to me."

"You grew up on to top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key.

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts and no one has been able to help me."

"Well that should help us then. You can show us what to do."

"No we aren't doing that. We aren't having a séance."

"It's ok, miss. I can show you what to do, its fine."

~~DW~~

The Doctor, Gwyneth, Charles, Mr Sneed and Rose sat around a table in the living room preparing for the séance.

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands." Gwyneth said breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"I can't take part in all this." Charles protested.

"Humbug? Come on, open mind."

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing!" Gwyneth looked down at her hands on top of the table with a defeated expression and Rose felt her anger rise again.

"Shut it! Leave her alone, if you don't want to be here then piss off, but don't you dare upset her or I'll give you one hell of slap!" Rose all but shouted at Charles and everyone including the Doctor looked at her with expressions of shock and surprise, but the Doctor felt something else as well as he watched the anger fill Rose, he felt intrigued, here was a supposedly normal girl who by all accounts didn't want to take part in this séance but was sticking up for Gwyneth because she felt she needed to, and that gave the Doctor hope, something he hadn't felt in a long time.

"Now, don't antagonise her. She will slap you, and I love a happy medium." The Doctor said trying to ease some of the tension out of the room.

"I can't believe you just said that." Rose whispered to him as she smirked at his joke.

"Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out."

"Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits come. Speak to us that we may relieve you of your burden."

The whispering started around the room and Rose knew it was moments before the Gelth made an appearance and used the Doctors guilt against him.

"This is sheer folly." Charles protested again, Rose who was getting tired of his constant denial was seriously considering giving him that slap.

"I see them. I feel them." Gwyneth announced as the blue gas started to drift above their heads.

"They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now look deep, allow them through." The Doctor encouraged.

"I can't!"

"Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link."

"Yes, I can see them. My angels." Gwyneth said as the blue gases seemed to become stronger and shaped themselves into outlines of people.

"Great God! Spirits from the other side." Mr Sneed cried.

"The other side of the universe."

The figures began to speak Gwyneth's mouth moving in time with theirs as though they were speaking through her.

"Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us."

"What do you want us to do?" The Doctor questioned.

"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge." They pleaded sounding almost child like.

"What for?"

"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction."

"Why? What happened?"

"Once we had a physical form, like you, but then the war came."

"War? What War." Charles asked, Rose looked at the Doctor and saw that at that moment as soon as they mentioned the war, that was when he decided that he had to help them. That poor stupid man, Rose thought, even though the war wasn't his fault he still felt as though he had to help everyone affected by it, everyone besides himself.

"The Time war. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

"So that is why you need the corpses."

"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste, give them to us."

"You said you were few, how many are there? How many of the Gelth need bodies? What if we don't have enough?" Rose questioned hoping that they would saying something anything to get the Doctor to understand what the Gelth were actually like.

"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth." And with that the Gelth went back into the gas lamps and Gwyneth collapsed onto the table.

"Gwyneth, are you alright?" Rose asked as she placed a hand on her face.

"All true, my God it's all true." Charles said in a state of shock.

"Come on you lot, help me move her over to the chaise, come on then." Rose started to lift Gwyneth up when the Doctor came over to help her move Gwyneth.

"It's alright you just sleep, you need your rest, that must have taken a lot out of you." Rose said to Gwyneth when she noticed that she was trying to get up.

"But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?"

"They do need you, Gwyneth, You're the only one who can, their only chance of survival."

"Leave her alone. She's exhausted. She isn't doing it." Rose said to the Doctor hoping this time he would listen to her.

"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Mr Sneed questioned.

"Aliens." The Doctor replied simply.

"Like foreigners, you mean?" Mr Sneed asked, not quite getting it.

"Pretty foreign, yeah. From way up there." The Doctor answered pointing towards the sky.

"Brecon?"

"Yeah, close to Brecon. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl."

"They can't have her!" Rose said getting angry at the way they referred to Gwyneth as a spare part, or something to help place a piece of the puzzle.

"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through." The Doctor tried to reason with Rose not understanding why she was so unwilling to help.

"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers."

"Good system. It might work."

"You can't do this Doctor, you just can't."

"I can, and I don't see why I shouldn't"

"Doctor don't do this, it's wrong."

"It's not though. How is this any different from you carrying a donor's card? It's not, it's just a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying."

"And you should have heard what they didn't say! They didn't say how many a few was, did they? What is stopping them from meaning a couple of million, then what? Hmm they just go and kill enough people to get the corpses they need, is that it?"

"Enough Rose! This is my call to make not yours, you don't get a say."

But Rose wasn't going to give up, "Mr Sneed how did Mr Redpath die?" Rose asked looking away from the Doctor and towards Mr Sneed waiting for the answer.

"Well Mrs Redpath killed him."

"So we know that they kill innocent people. What could have happened to me if you did come in when you did Doctor. You would of taking my mum a corpse because they were about thirty seconds from killing me! I won't let you use your misguided guilt place Gwyneth in harm's way! Can't you see that they're using your guilt against you, or are you so blind you can't see past it!?"

"Please miss, I know you want to help but I've got help my angels." Gwyneth spoke up for the first time distracting the Doctor from replying.

"Gwyneth, you've seen inside my head, you know why I can't let you do this." Rose said as she turned towards her trying to make her understand what would happen if she insisted.

"I know miss, but I also know that it is important that I do. Like you and the bad wolf must happen." The Doctor was momentarily lost wondering what they could possibly be talking about, how could Rose have something inside her head that would make Gwyneth want to damn a species? And what did they mean by the Bad Wolf?

"Doctor what do I need to do?" Gwyneth asked distracting the Doctor from his thoughts, he glanced at Rose quickly before replying.

"You don't need to do this, you can say no if you want to. Nobody will force you." The Doctor said trying to make Rose see that he wasn't pushing this on to her, that it was her choice.

"I need to, sir. It's important."

"Ok then, we need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mr Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"

"That would be the morgue."

"Of course it is because this doesn't feel like a b-rated slasher flick at all." Rose muttered sarcastically.

~~DW~~

"Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Yeah." The Doctor looked down at Rose not knowing what to expect and he was still slightly angry at her for thinking she knew better than him.

"Time isn't a straight line is it, cause I'm here changing events. Like you do all the time. Does that mean that all events in time could change then." Rose asked.

The Doctor looked ahead as he thought, no one had ever quite grasped the idea of time travel so fast, most of the time they thought they would be safe in the past because it was just that, the past. They didn't realise that time is in flux, changing every second. That their cozy little world could be rewritten like that. That nothing was ever really safe besides a few fixed points.

"Time isn't a straight line. You're right it can change everything, right down to the smallest detail. But there are things that are fixed points in time, that need to happen. If they don't then the fabric of universe could tear. Everything would change, and that would be bad, very bad indeed." And the Doctor speeded up to get away from Rose.

"Gwyneth, are you sure you want to do this." The Doctor asked.

"Yes, sir, I'm sure."

Before Rose could raise her objections again the Gelth came out of the lamps by the door and stood under a stone archway.

"Praise the Doctor. You've come to help. Praise the Doctor." The Gelth said "Please hurry! So little time. Pity the Gelth."

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right? Ok where's the weak point?"

"Here, beneath the arch."

Before Gwyneth could move to stand under the arch Rose grabbed her arm, "You really don't have to do this."

"But I do, miss. I've seen you're world and know what I must do. My part must be played and I will do it. You've come so far, but you've still got so far to go. You should understand that this must happen." And with that she removed Rose's hand from her hand and stood under the arch way. Rose's eyes filled with tears remembering what the Doctor had said last time about her being dead from the moment she stepped beneath the archway.

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!"

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"It has begun. The bridge has been made!" Gwyneth opened her mouth as if to speak but instead blue gas came streaming out.

"She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend." Rose grabbed the Doctors hand as the blue gas of the Gelth suddenly changed to red, almost looking like flames, flames burning the air around them. Rose started to try and pull the Doctor away but he wasn't moving.

"The Gelth will come through in force."

"You said that you were few in number!" Charles shouted at the Gelth.

"A few billion. And all of us need corpses." The Doctor started to move away from the archway with Rose as the bodies that had been on the tables started to get up realising that he had made a mistake and should have listened to Rose.

"Gwyneth, stop this! Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you."

"Mr Sneed get back!" Rose shouted as she saw one of the Gelth reach out for him, before he could react though the body had snapped his neck and one of the Gelth flew into him.

"I think it's gone a little wrong." The Doctor said beating himself up over his stupidity.

"You think!?" Rose shouted.

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us."

"No!" Charles cried backing away from the Gelth that had already taken form.

"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."

"Gwyneth stop them! Send them back now!" The Doctor shouted at Gwyneth not knowing that she was already dead herself.

"Three more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth." The Doctor and Rose continued to back away until they hit the metal bars of a gate.

"Doctor I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so sorry." And he ran from the room. The Doctor and Rose managed to open the gate and close the door so the Gelth couldn't reach them.

"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The Doctor shouted towards the corpse that was Mr Sneed.

"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while I'm alive."

"Then live no more."

Rose was trying to reach the gas to pipe to loosen it to keep the Gelth away, "I take it that this is one of those times that time isn't straight forwards? I could die here right?" Rose asked trying to distract the Doctor from what she was doing with the pipes.

"Yes, you can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here, you tried to warn me."

"It's not your fault. I wanted to come, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. And as for not listening to me, yes that was a mistake on your part but they play on your guilt. That isn't your fault, you may not have told me much about the war but I know that you feel as though it was your fault and you take the blame for everyone and everything that was involved. And that just isn't right, and when you feel ready you can talk to me about."

"I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff."

"It's not just dying. We'll become one of them." Rose said as she managed to loosen the last of the pipes and started to feel light headed for the gas.

"We'll go down fighting, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Together?"

"Together." The Doctor agreed. Rose reached for his hand and grasped it in hers and prayed Charles would show up soon.

"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now fill the room, all of it, now!" Charles said as he ran into the room and started to turn on the gas lamps.

"What're you doing?" The Doctor asked.

"Turn it all on. Flood the place!"

"Brilliant. Gas!" The Doctor turned to face Rose when a thought suddenly hit him, "Rose how long have you been breathing it in?"

"Awhile now, now quickly before they get Charlie boy." Rose said turning his attention to a main gas pipe behind him.

"It's working, it's drawing them out of them host. Sucking them into the air like poison from a wound!" The Doctor and Rose made their way out of the cage and towards the archway.

"Charles take Rose upstairs and outside now! I'll be up in a minute." He let of Rose's hand and went forward to talk to Gwyneth. "Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels."

"Liars?" Gwyneth questioned turning her gaze onto the Doctor.

"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"

"They're too strong!" Gwyneth cried out as she tried and failed.

"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."  
"I can't send them back. But I can hold them in this place, hold them here." Gwyneth said as she reached into her pocket and got out the packet of matches she had on her, "Get out."

"Give that to me." The Doctor said, when Gwyneth didn't move he checked her pulse and found that she didn't have one anymore and that she was cold, cold enough to have been dead for a while. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" The Doctor said he kissed her forehead and whispered in her ear "Thank you." And ran for his life.

The Doctor made it outside and felt as if he was about to have a heart attack when he saw Rose lying in the snow the lips a faint pale blue, the only thing that gave him hope was that he saw the steady rise and fall of her chest. The house exploded and Rose woke with a start, she looked at the Doctor and realised by the look on his that Gwyneth hadn't made it out again.

"She didn't make it, did she?" Rose still had to ask.

"I'm sorry, she closed the rift."

"Poor child. Such a cost." Charles said.

"I did try Rose, I swear I did. But Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes. I think she was dead from the moment she stepped into that archway." Rose didn't say anything as she stood up and walked towards the Doctor and pulled him into a hug. The Doctor froze for a moment before he allowed himself to relax and enjoy the comfort that the hug was bringing him, all the emotions he couldn't put into words he felt he poured it into the hug hoping Rose would understand.

"There are more thing in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy," Charles quoted, "Even for you Doctor."

"She saved the world. A servant girl. And while no one else will know, we will remember her Doctor because she was so brave. We can't forget her." Rose said as she looked up into the Doctor's eyes.

"We'll remember her Rose. I promise we will remember her." And with that they walked hand in hand towards the TARDIS. They walked in silence until they reached the TARDIS.

"Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long."

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked Charles.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learnt tonight, there can be nothing more vital."

"You've cheered up!" The Doctor commented.

"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them."

"Do you think that's the best idea?" Rose asked.

"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle after all. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth."

"Good luck with that. Nice to meet you. Fantastic!"

"Bye then, and thanks." Rose said as she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

"Oh, my dear. How very modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"You'll see. In the shed."

"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's still one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?" Charles asked.

"Just a friend passing through."

"But you have such knowledge of future times, I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"

"Oh, yes!"

"For how long?" Charles asked.

"Forever. Right. Shed. Come on, Rose." The Doctor said turning round unlocking the door.

"In the box? Both of you?"

"Down boy. See you." Rose waved over her shoulder to Charles one last time as the Doctor closed the door and made his way to the console.

"He doesn't get a chance to write about blue ghosts, does he?"

"In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story."

"That's a shame, he could of written such wonderful stories now he has his fire back."

"That's the point though. He's alive again, more alive than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise."

And with that the TARDIS dematerialised.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Thanks for all the reviews and support I've been getting.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, so please don't sue. But if you do you could only win, my impressive three cardboard boxes, two thirds of a Christmas, a three year old Christmas pudding, and eight used tissues.

* * *

Chapter Five: Aliens Faking Aliens in London.

"So Rose Tyler, back on Earth and you've only been gone twelve hours." The Doctor said as he pushed the TARDIS doors open.

"Are you sure about that? I mean you didn't get the last flight right, did you?"

"Of course I am. I'm hurt that you don't trust me." The Doctor joked.

"I do trust you, to get your landings in the wrong time zone." Rose said poking fun at him.

"What're you going to tell your mother then?"

"Well I could tell her I've been to the year five billion and to 1869, but I don't think she'd believe me." Rose said walking away from the Doctor and towards the stairs. Rose ran up the stairs while the Doctor wondered around aimlessly.

"I'm back!" Rose shouted as she entered her mum's flat, "Are you in? So, what's been going on? How've you been?" Rose asked when her mum came out of the kitchen she dropped her mug of tea and Rose saw with a groan that the stack of missing person flyers were still on the table.

"It's you."

"Of course it's me, mum." Rose turned around as she heard the Doctor coming through the door.

"It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months. You've been gone a whole year. Sorry." The Doctor apologised.

Rose and the Doctor sat quite in uncomfortable silence as Jackie phoned the police and waited from them to show up not knowing quite what to say when they did.

"The hours I've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead, and where were you? Travelling. What the hell does that mean, travelling? That's no sort of answer." Jackie turned to police officer, "You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Travelling."

"Mum," Rose interrupted "I told you when I phoned that I was travelling and that I won't be able to contact you."

"When your passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another."

"This kind of travelling didn't necessarily need a passport."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!? Doesn't necessarily need a passport? Where were you?"

"Actually, it's my fault. I sort of, er, employed Rose as my companion." The Doctor said not realising how his comment would be taken.

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" The policeman asked.

"NO!" Both Rose and the Doctor said at the same time.

"Look you want to ask someone phone UNIT. They can tell you that the Doctor and I were travelling and can't tell you any details." Rose said wondering why people kept on thinking that she was a hooker.

"What's UNIT?" The policeman asked Rose.

"It's an organisation that knows the Doctor and can vouch that there is nothing going on that involves you needing to be here." Rose said as the Doctor leaned towards Rose.

"How do you know about UNIT? And that I worked with them for a while?" The Doctor asked as the policeman phone the number he had gotten from the station for UNIT and Jackie had gone to make a cup of tea.

"Well after you turned up and saved me for the first time, I did some research on you. You do realise that there is a lot about you on the internet, I mean no one has quite guessed the truth but they are close." Rose said stretching the truth slightly.

"Oh ok. Wait, you googled me?"

"Of course I did, I was curious about you." Before the Doctor could ask anymore the policeman hung up the phone and Jackie entered the room again.

"Ok it is confirmed that Rose was with the Doctor doing some work for them. There's nothing we can do then." The policeman said and made his way to the door to let himself out.

"That's it then? Because you, you waltz in here all charms and smiles and take my only daughter away for a year, what for? What could Rose possibly do for you? How old are you anyway? Forty? Forty five? What, did you find her on some website? Did you pretend to be some hot shot doctor?"

"Rose did a great deal of good while she was gone, without her things would of gone differently and that wouldn't of been good for anyone. And I am a Doctor."

"Prove it! Stitch this, mate!" Rose watched as her mum slapped the Doctor again and was shocked that her mum did that again, and that her mum thought she couldn't help the Doctor even if she didn't know exactly what was going on, it still hurt. Rose watched as the Doctor raised a hand to his face and rubbed his cheek in a state of shock that he'd been slapped, and slapped by his companions mother.

"Did you think about me at all?"

"Of course I did. All the time and I'm sorry I didn't phone but you can't just slap the Doctor like that, it isn't his fault."

"I just wanted to know you were alive."

"I know and when we leave again, I'll phone you more often and try to visit more as well."

"Do you want to know, what terrifies me is that you still can't say. What happened to you, Rose? What can be so and that you can't me, sweetheart? Where were you?"

~~DW~~

Rose was sitting on the roof of the block of flats thinking about her Doctor, while it was true she loved this version of the Doctor she missed her Doctor with his great hair, his gob that didn't seem to have an off switch, and his great smile. She felt almost guilty loving this Doctor and reliving her time with him even if they were the same man at the end of the day. Rose sat thinking about this, arguing with herself and settled on the fact that he was the same and that this time she was going to treasure her time with him knowing he didn't have long before his worst nightmare came true.

The Doctor walked up behind Rose noticing that once again she seemed to be far away and he wondered what she was thinking to make her seem sad.

"Hey, what you thinking about?" The Doctor asked sitting down next to her.

"I can't tell her where I was. She'd panic, wouldn't she? So I missed a year, I was right. You really can't drive." Rose laughed at the end.

"Are you going to stay here now, then?" The Doctor asked worried that this time he'd scared her away.

"Trying to get rid of me?"

"No." The Doctor answered quickly.

Rose smiled, "So this year I missed, any good?"

"Middling." The Doctor answered. "You know in nine hundred years I've never been slapped by someone mother."

"Your face though! It was a picture. I'm sorry she slapped you though…so nine hundred years then?"

"Yeah, is that a problem."

"No…just my mother was right, that is one hell of an age gap." Rose quipped then turned serious, "It's just that there's no one I can tell, I mean it's amazing up there, you've already shown me some amazing things and no one down here would believe me. But don't you dare start thinking that I regret it, I wouldn't change my mind about going for anything in this universe or the next."

Before the Doctor could answer they heard a deep horn and looked up to see a spaceship trailing black smoke passing overhead and heading directly for the city centre. They watched as it missed the Tower bridge, St Pauls, and then hit the edge of Big Ben before crash landing in the Thames.

"Oh, fantastic!" The Doctor said grabbing Rose's hand and making their way towards the crash site. They made their way towards the stairs when Rose pulled on the Doctors hand.

"What?" He asked.

"Think about it Doctor, alien ship crash lands in the middle of London? There is no way in hell we'd be able to get through."

"So what do you recommend then?"

"We do what the rest of nation will do." Rose said waiting for the Doctor to understand what she meant, "We watch it on TV." She said when he didn't.

~~DW~~

Rose watched the Doctor as the Doctor flicked through news stations trying to ignore her mum and her friends as they talked about dodgy top up cards and who was seeing who on the estate. Rose moved closer to the Doctor to talk to him.

"Did you know this was gonna happen?" Rose asked trying to help him deal with all the 'stupid human' things going on around him.

"Nope."

"Did you recognise the ship?"

"Nope."

"Do you know why it crashed?"

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you here!"

"I bet you are. This is why we travel Rose. To see history in the making, happening right in front of us." Rose smiled when she realised that the Doctor had said 'we', that this time round already he seemed to include her in his future plans. Rose watched the news with the Doctor listening to how they had found a body when she heard the door open and looked around to see Mickey. She instantly felt guilty again because she had forgotten to go see Mickey, again.

"Someone owes Mickey an apology." Jackie's friend Ru said.

"I was going to come round, but then me and the Doctor saw the spaceship."

"I wasn't talking to you." Ru said pointing towards Jackie.

"Ok then, let's move this in to the kitchen. And Doctor," Rose said turning round to face him, "I know you're planning on checking on something but you had better still be here when I get back, cause I'm coming too." And with that Rose pushed her mum and Mickey into the kitchen leaving the Doctor wondering how she knew he was planning on leaving.

Mickey started as soon as they entered the kitchen, "You disappear, who do they turn to? Your boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend" Rose interrupted, "we broke up Mickey, that makes you my ex."

"Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times. No evidence. Course, there couldn't be, could there? And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letter box, and all cos of you."

"Look I'm sorry, I did say I was going to be gone a while to both of you." Rose said pointing towards them both.

"I waited for you Rose. Twelve months, waiting for you and the Doctor to come back."

"Hold on. You knew about the Doctor? Why didn't you tell me?" Jackie asked.

Mickey started shutting the serving hatch and the door.

"Yeah, yeah. Why not Rose? How could I tell her where you went?"

"Tell me."

"Fine, you really want to know? The Doctor and I" But before she could finish the Doctor opened the door and pulled Rose by the arm while saying, "sorry to interrupt what I'm sure was going to be a interesting explanation, but I need Rose now. Bye."

The Doctor pulled Rose out of the flat leaving a shocked Jackie and Mickey staring after them. The Doctor turned to face Rose when they reached the TARDIS and let go of her hand.

"Well, what was so important you dragged me back here?" Rose asked raising an eyebrow.

"I thought you might of needed an out," The Doctor explained "I heard them asking you question and it sounded like you were about to tell your mum the truth."

"Well I might have had to. But thanks for the out anyway."

"So Rose, while we are standing next to my frankly remarkable TARDIS what do say to go having a look at this alien? Or you could stay here and catch up with your mum and your boyfriend?"

"First of all why does everybody keep calling him my boyfriend? We haven't gone out in a about twelve months for him even if it is only a few days for me. And secondly I'm not missing this alien man, come on." The Doctor watched Rose head towards the door of the TARDIS filled with sudden relief that she had broken up with Mickey, but he wasn't going to think about that. No now, not ever.

"You're going to need a key to get inside, here." The Doctor said pulling a key out of his pockets and handing it to Rose. "You can have this one."

Rose smiled at him and pulled him into a hug, again she noticed that it took the Doctor a few seconds to relax. "Thank you, at least now I know you won't just leave me stranded on some planet." Rose said and stood on tip toes and gave the Doctor a quick peck on the cheek. She turned around and put the key into the lock and opened the door.

"Well, um, right then" The Doctor said, "Let's go find ourselves an alien, then." And with that he started flicking switches and they were off.

~~DW~~

"Right here we are." The Doctor said as the TARDIS landed. "Let's go."

Rose hopped of the seat and ran towards the doors and pulled them open, she noticed that they were in a storage cupboard, "Doctor looks like we're going to need your sonic to get out of this door."

"Alright, budge up then." The Doctor said as Rose moved out of the way so the Doctor could point his sonic at the lock. The door unlocked easy enough but when they opened it Rose groaned, "I knew it was too easy." As they found themselves in front of a room of men wearing red berets all with guns pointing at them. Before the Doctor could reply they heard a scream, "Defence plan delta! Come on. Move! Move!" The Doctor shouted, grabbed Rose's hand and started running towards the screaming. The Doctor and Rose entered the room and saw Doctor Sato cowering behind her desk, "It's alive." She whispered clearly terrified.

"Spread out. Tell everyone the perimeter is on lockdown." The Doctor told the nearest solider and turned around to see Rose trying to comfort the doctor, checking the cut on her head to make sure she was alright.

"It's alive, it's still alive. I swear it was dead." Doctor Sato whispered to Rose.

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything. What does it look like?" The Doctor asked hearing what the woman said to Rose.

Before Doctor Sato could answer they all heard a metal tray hit the floor, the Doctor shared a look with Rose and they got up and started to move towards the filing cabinets.

"Well, hello there." Rose said as she saw the pig. Before the Doctor or Rose could grab hold of him though, he ran out of the room.

"Don't shoot it!" Rose shouted hoping the soldiers would do as she said. Rose turned the corner and saw a soldier raise his gun about to shot the pig and ran in front of it pulling it close to her body. The soldier reacted without thinking though and pulled the trigger. The bullet went straight through Rose arm and hit the pig in between the eyes, killing it. The Doctor came round the corner the moment after the shot was heard and saw Rose holding the pig with tears in her eyes, then he saw that she was bleeding.

"What happened?" The Doctor asked Rose gently.

"The soldier killed him. He was scared! He was just scared!" Rose said trying not to cry.

"Rose, what happened to your arm? You're bleeding."

"I am?" Rose asked. She slowly lifted her arm up and saw that the bullet had gone through her arm just missing the bone. "I think I was shot Doctor."

The Doctor turned to face the soldier who was still standing there with a slightly shocked expression on his face, "Why the hell did you shot!?" The Doctor asked.

"It was running towards me, and then she got in front of it. It was just a reaction!" The soldier tried to defend himself. The Doctor tried very hard to restrain himself from punching the soldier, which he found odd. He'd never felt so strongly to one of his companions before, what was it about Rose? While he was thinking on this he saw Rose let go of the pig and walk towards the soldier.

"Why? Why did you shot him? He wasn't hurting anyone! He was a victim!" She shouted at the soldier, who looked shocked that she was speaking to him like that. Then Rose did what her mum would do and slapped him. The Doctor looked at the soldier clutching his face in shock and pain and knew that Rose slapped just as hard as her mother, if not worse.

"Just be thankful that's all she did." He told the soldier and turned around to pick up the pig and take him and Rose back to the lab.

~~DW~~

Several minutes later the Doctor looked over the results of the pig, "He's a mermaid."

"You mean like a Victorian mermaid?" Rose asked.

"Exactly like that."

"Excuse me but isn't it an alien? Are you saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth?" Doctor Sato asked.

"Yep" Rose said "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid."

"Only in this case someone has taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and made it a joke." The Doctor said. They didn't wait around to hear if Doctor Sato had anything to add as they held hands and walked out making their way back to the TARDIS. When they got to the TARDIS Rose looked down at her arm and saw that the bandage she had put on it was soaked with blood.

"Doctor, do you think you could do anything for my arm?" Rose asked as she noticed the world was getting a little bit woozy.

"Rose, why didn't you tell me it was this bad!?" The Doctor said as he reached over, "I'm going to have to take your top off so I can heal it, ok?"

"Sure sure. I bet you say that to everyone." Rose joked.

"No only you." The Doctor said as he lifted Rose's top over her head. He tried really hard not to think about Rose's breasts that just inches away from him as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it towards her. "It should just take a moment, and I think you should get a new top out of the wardrobe so your mother doesn't freak out."

"That's a good idea." Rose said trying to control her breathing. The Doctor was done moments later and Rose left the console to go find herself a new top.

~~DW~~

When Rose came back into the console room she saw the Doctor looking at the screen. "The whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look." Before either one could say anything they heard a knocking at the door.

"I'll get that, you finish whatever you're doing so you can explain it to me." Rose said heading towards the door. When she opened it she was surprised to see Mickey and her mum on the other side.

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked.

"I was walking back to mine when I heard the TARDIS so I came to talk to you, and your mother just followed me."

"Fine come in, just be quite we've almost figured it out." Rose said as Mickey came in.

"You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you." Mickey started straight away.

"Oh, great, that's just what I need. A domestic."

"I bet you don't even remember my name."

"Ricky" The Doctor answered, winking at Rose.

"It's Mickey."

"No, it's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name."

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?"

Rose tried not to laugh knowing the Doctor was just messing with Mickey she looked over at her mum and saw she wasn't taking this well.

"You two behave, or I'll take away your toys." Rose threatened playfully, "Mum? Mum?" Rose said as she looked around and saw she was gone again, "Oh, great."

"So that was a real spaceship?" Rose asked.

"Yep. Aren't you going to go after your mother?"

"Nope, she needs some time and space. So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading? Or just trying to destroy the world?"

"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." Mickey said reminding Rose and the Doctor he was still there.

"Good point! So what are they up to?" The Doctor wondered.

~~DW~~

"So, what're you doing down there?" Mickey asked trying to start a conversation with the Doctor.

"Rickey."

"Mickey." Mickey corrected.

"Rickey. If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

"I suppose not."

"Well, shut it, then."

"Some friend you've got." Mickey complained to Rose who was standing by one of the coral beams stroking it lightly.

"He winding you up. I am sorry though."

"Okay." Mickey said not really believing it.

"I am though, really. Pinky swear."

"Every day, I looked. On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."

"It's only been a few days for me. I don't know. It's, it's hard to tell time inside her but I swear it has only been a few days since I left you and mum."

"Not enough time to miss me then?" Mickey asked.

"I did miss you, you're my best friend."

"I missed you too."

"So twelve months? You been seeing anyone else?" Rose asked

"No."

"Why?"

"Well mainly cause everyone thinks I murdered you.

"Right I suppose that would be a bit of a downer on the whole relationship thing."

"So, now that you've come back, are you going to stay?" Mickey asked with a little bit of hope that Rose was going to choose him.

Before Rose could answer they heard the Doctor jump up from under the controls.

"Got it! Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go. Hold on. Come on." The Doctor talked to the monitor. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see?" The Doctor said pointing at the screen, "Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a sling shot around the Earth before it landed."

"So that means it came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down."

"Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?"

"You guys do realise that you finish each other sentences, right?" Mickey asked looking at Rose, wondering what happened to her. Mickey and Rose started channel hopping on the scanner trying to find something useful. "How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked.

"All the basic packages." The Doctor replied vaguely.

"You get sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the football."

"He's being modest. You should see the movie room, it's huge and has just about every movie ever made or ever going to be made. It's amazing."

"How'd you find that? I've been looking for that room for ages but the TARDIS keeps moving it." The Doctor asked.

"She showed me it, I was looking for the wardrobe to change and I ended up in there." Rose lied covering her slip up.

"Oh, hold on I know that lot."

"Yeah, back from the glory days?" Rose asked cheekily.

"I'll have you know I'm still in my glory days. And that lot there is UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"Oh, so that's UNIT. They look like nice enough people."

"So you know about UNIT Rose?" Mickey asked.

"Yeah I found out about them when I researched the Doctor."

"So did you also see that his name is also followed by a list of the dead." Before the Doctor could say anything Rose beat him too it.

"Oh, really Mickey. You're going to play that card? Answer me this then, how many people would of died if the Doctor wasn't here to help with the living plastic? Or the Gelth? Or any of the other disasters he's help avoid? How many people are alive because of him? God you are so thick sometimes Mickey. Just sod off if you're going to be like that." Rose ranted at Mickey leaving both of them shocked, the Doctor because even though they had only known each other for a few days she already believed in him and trusted him so much. And Mickey because she was taking the Doctor's side in this.

"So," Rose said after a few more tense moments "Why don't you go and help them out then?"

"They wouldn't recognise me. I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides the world's on a knife-edge. There's alien out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And, er, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

"Where to then?"

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

"Goody." Rose said clapping her hands together "A field trip!"

They stepped out of the TARDIS together. It took the Doctor to notice that they being surrounded by policemen.

"Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads." The Doctor and Rose complied but Mickey ran around some of the coppers and legged it out of there.

"Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest." The police man in charge told them. The Doctor and Rose turned around when they heard her mother shouting her name, "Rose! Rose! Let her go, she's my daughter!"

"Take me to your leader." The Doctor said leaning down he whispered in Rose's ear "I've always wanted to say that."

"Of course you have." Rose whispered back rolling her eyes.

They were lead to black unmarked car, "A bit posh this. So arrested or escorted?" Rose asked.

"Oh definitely escorted."

"Let me guess, to Downing Street." Rose said slightly sarcastically, the Doctor just raised an eyebrow in response.

"No way! Really? This is so cool. But why?" Rose asked faking excitement and surprise.

"Mickey was right, I hate to say. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of time, and I've been, er, noticed."

"Now they need you."

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Umm…Patrick Moore?"

"Apart from him."

"Oh, don't you just love it."

"I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know? Thanks to your driving I missed a year, but gained some aliens."

Rose and The Doctor left the car and were lead into the lobby of 10 Downing Street filled with UNIT officers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." A man Rose remembered came forward and handed the Doctor and ID badge.

"Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companion doesn't have clearance."

"I don't go anywhere with her." The Doctor argued on her behalf.

"You're the code nine, not her. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? She'll have to stay outside."

"She's staying with me."

"Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact." Before the Doctor could argue anymore Rose interrupted.

"It's alright, you go and show off to all those people in there. And I'll have a look around and see what I can find. Something about this whole thing just feels, off. You know what I mean?"

"Ok, are you sure?"

"I'm sure Doctor. Look after yourself."

"You too. When I come back, you'd better still be all in one piece."

"Excuse me" Harriet Jones interrupted "Can I have a moment of your time please?"

"Why don't you just go home?" The man asked.

"See looks like I've got my own thing now too." Rose said pointedly meaning Harriet.

"Ok, I mean it though be careful." The Doctor said as he dropped a quick kiss on the top of her head and walked into the side room.

"Right I'm going to have to leave you with security." The man said pointing at Rose.

"It's alright. I'll look after her. Let me be of some use." Harriet turned to Rose linked arms with her and said, "Walk with me. Just keep walking. That's right just keep walking. Don't look round. Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North." She introduced herself. "This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens?"

"Yeah, we can help you." Rose said kindly as Harriet broke down into tears.

Rose and Harriet made their way towards the Cabinet Room in silence, as Rose tried to comfort her.

"They turned the body into a suit. A disguise for the thing inside!" Harriet said to Rose as she pulled out the discarded skin.

"It's alright. I believe you. It's alien, that's for sure. They must have some serious technology behind this. If we could just find it, we could use it." Rose said as she started checking the places she hadn't got round to checking last time. As Rose got nearer the cupboard she knew what she would find but she also knew she had to open it, so she took a deep breath and pulled open the door as the body of the Prime Minister fell out. Before either Rose or Harriet could say anything the man Rose remembered was called Indra Ganesh entered.

"Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander about!" Indra then saw the body on the floor, "Oh my God. That's the Prime Minister!"

"Oh! Has someone been naughty?" A voice asked from the doorway.

"That's impossible. He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!" Indra protested.

"And who told you that?" Margaret asked as she reached up to her hairline. Rose knowing what was going to happen grabbed Indra and Harriet away from her. The other two watched in horror as Margaret unzipped her head stepped out of the skin suit and flexed three long fingers.

Margaret made a grab for Indra but Rose pulled him out of the way at the last moment as she started to back up away from her dragging the other two with her.

To be continued...


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing, so please don't sue. But if you do you could only win, my impressive three cardboard boxes, two thirds of a Christmas, a three year old Christmas pudding, eight used tissues, and my left shoe.

* * *

Chapter Six: World War Three, Really?

Rose watched Margaret get closer until she was suddenly stuck, it looked like she was being electrocuted knowing this was their only chance to get out she made her way to the door, "Come on we need to get out of here! Now!" She said to the other two. They were running along the corridors when Harriet suddenly stopped, "No, wait. They're still in there. The emergency protocols. We need them." Rose rolled her eyes as they ran back to the Cabinet Room to grab the emergency protocols. When they got back to the room the electric shock seemed to run out and Margaret started chasing them, Rose saw a quick glimpse of the Doctor in the elevator as they ran through the corridor, glad he was still ok they entered the sitting room.

"Hide!" She told the other and went to curtains, while Harriet hid behind the screen and Indra was under the desk.

"Oh, such fun. Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips." Margaret slowly made her way into the room. "My brothers." She greeted as to more of them entered the room.

"Happy hunting?"

"It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink." She confirmed

"Sweat and fear."

"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones."

"And a ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin. Fresh enough to bend before she snaps."

Margaret said just as she pulled back the curtain where Rose was hiding, Rose couldn't help but react with a scream and Harriet jumped out from her hiding place shouting, "No! Take me first! Take me!" Hoping to give Rose and Indra enough time to at least escape.

Before anyone in the room could do anything else the Doctor burst into the room carrying a fire extinguisher and sprayed one of the Slitheen.

"Out, with me!" He ordered. And they all ran out towards the Doctor. "Who the hell are you?" The Doctor asked.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." Harriet said pulling out her ID badge as she said this.

"Indra Ganesh."

"Nice to meet the pair of you." The Doctor said.

"Likewise." Harriet replied as the last of the fire extinguisher was used they all ran out of the room.

"We need to get to the Cabinet Room." The Doctor ordered.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens."

"Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you too."

They heard the Slitheen catching up with them so they sped up turning a corner they saw the Cabinet Room right in front of them. The Doctor grabs a decanter from a side table and stands in the doorway.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Bang, we all go up. So back off." The Doctor said, and the Slitheen stopped a little way from the door.

"Right question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens." Harriet pointed out, as if they had all missed that somehow.

"Yes, I got that thanks."

"Who are you, if not human?" The Slitheen questioned back.

"Who's not human?" Harriet asked.

"He's not human." Rose answered.

"He's not human?" Indra questioned.

"Can I have a bit of hush?"

"Sorry." Indra and Harriet apologised.

"So what's the plan?" The Doctor asked wanting answers.

"But he's got a Northern accent."

"Lots of planets have a north." Rose quoted.

"I said hush. Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

"Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"The Slitheen race?" One of asked.

"Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is out surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

"So you're a family?"

"Family business." Jocrassa corrected.

"Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?"

"Ah, excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

"Is that what I said?"

"You're making it up."

"Ah, well! Nice try. Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it." Harriet didn't take the bottle the Doctor handed out to her though, "You pass it to the left." Rose rolled her eyes, how on Earth was she still thinking about polite table manners when she thought she was going to die?

"Sorry." The Doctor said and passed it to Rose who was on his left.

"Thanks." Rose said and opened the bottle and took a swig from it.

"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter."

"Don't you think we should run?" Indra asked.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mr Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." The Doctor said as he reached for a small panel by the door and presses a button. Metal shutters crash down across the windows and doors.

"Installed in 1991. Three inched of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"And I've found a hole in your current plan Doctor." Rose said.

"What's that then?"

"We can't get out."

"Ah."

~~DW~~

"Right what we got? Any terminals, anything?" The Doctor asked trying to assess the situation.

"No. This place is antique. Why didn't they just use the Prime Minister?"

"He's too slim. They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans."

"But they're about eight feet. How do they fit inside?" Rose asked, asking questions she found out always helped the Doctor process what was happening.

"That's the device around their necks. Compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a bit exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit into a size smaller." Rose joked.

Harriet looked shocked that she was making a joke, "Excuse me, people are dead! This is not the time for making jokes."

"Sorry," Rose apologised, "you get used to this kind of thing when you travel with him." Rose said meaning them more than she did last time.

"Well, that's a strange friendship."

"Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

"Oh, hardly"

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?"

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Don't worry about that, we've got the person who they all try to be." Rose said pointing to the Doctor. "Couldn't we just launch a missile?"

"You're a very violent young woman."

"I'm serious. We could."

"Well, there's nothing like that in here. While we could do a missile strike, a nuclear strike does need a release code, but it's kept secret by the United Nations.

"Say that again."

"What, about the codes?"

"Anything. All of it."

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

"Like that's ever going to stop them."

"Exactly, given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important." Rose answered.

"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted. Listen to me, I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal."

"Well, what do they want? They don't want to invade, but they put the world on red alert. Doctor?"

"It's just one family, so it isn't an invasion, you're right. They don't want a Slitheen world. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?" Harriet said as she started listing things on Earth.

"You're very good at this." The Doctor complimented her.

"Thank you."

"Harriet Jones. Why do I know that name?" The Doctor asked again.

Rose's phone started to beep, "Oh, that's me with issue number two."

"But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?"

"He zapped it. Super phone."

"Then we can phone for help! You must have contacts." Indra said with hope.

"It's Mickey."

"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy."

"What is it with guys that they always stick a girl with someone even after they've broken up?" Rose asked. "And he's not that stupid after all." Rose said as she held her phone out so the Doctor could look at the picture of the Slitheen that Mickey had sent her.

"How did you know it was going to be something like that?" The Doctor asked Rose.

"Well think about it, first it was the plastic and you getting caught, then Cassandra and getting the shield back, and then depending on your outlook me and the Gelth or you and the Gelth. See always two or more issues at a time."

"Ok, point taken. Phone Mickey then."

Rose dialled Mickey's number. "Hello? Mickey are you alright?"

"No, no, no, no, no. Not just an alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"

"Is my mum alright though? Don't put her on, just tell me." Before Rose could get her answer the Doctor took her phone from her, "Is that Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's Mickey, and why should I?"

"Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you.

"Ok then." They waited in silence while Mickey followed the Doctor's instructions, hacking into the UNIT website, "It says password."

The Doctor spotted a conference phone speaker and plugged Rose's phone in. "Say again."

"It's asking for a password." Mickey repeated.

"Buffalo. Two Fs, one L."

"So what's this website?" They heard Jackie ask in the background.

"All the secret information known to mankind. See, they've known about aliens for years." Mickey answered. "They've just kept us in the dark."

"Mickey, you were born in the dark."

"No more cheap shots at people trying to help you. Or I'll talk to the TARDIS and have her send us somewhere you would hate, alright?"

"Thank you. Password again."

"Just repeat it every time."

"Big Ben, why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them."

"That lot would gather for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."

"The Slitheen are hiding, but they put the entire planet on Red alert. What if they didn't crash? But just parked, with a bit of a landing problem? Kinda like you Doctor." Rose couldn't help but add on the end.

"Oh, listen to her." They heard Jackie comment.

"At least I'm trying."

"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind. Since that man walked into our lives, I've been attacked in the streets. I have had creature from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappear off the face of the Earth."

"Mum." Rose warned but Jackie continued.

"I'm, talking to him. Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe? Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that?"

Before the Doctor or Rose could respond Mickey said "We're in."

"Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

"What is it?" Mickey asked.

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." The Doctor was quite for a while, "It's some sort of message."

"What's it say?" Rose asked.

"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating." They heard Mickey's doorbell go, "Hush! It's beaming out into space, who's it for?"

"They've found us!" Mickey shouted down the phone and Rose had to bite her tongue to stop herself shouting out for them to go get something with vinegar in it.

"Get out there! Mum, just get out! Get out!"

"We can't. It's by the front door. Oh my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

"Doctor, how do we stop them." Rose asked him.

"I'm thinking!"

"I'll take it on, Jackie. You just run. Don't look back. Just run." They heard Mickey order Jackie and Rose realised that Mickey was actually incredibly brave sometimes.

"Right, if we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green." Rose said.

"Yep narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell." Indra said.

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology." Harriet pitched in.

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in the Thames, you said slipstream engine."

"Narrows it down."

"It getting in!" Mickey shouted.

"They hunt like it's a ritual." Rose said getting faster at naming the characteristics.

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute. Did you notice? When they fart." Harriet started but Rose interrupted, "It smells like bad breath."

"Calcium decay! Now that narrows it down!"

"We're getting there, Mum!"

"Too late!" Mickey said letting them know it had gotten into his apartment.

"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!" The Doctor worked out.

"Oh, yeah, great! We can write them a letter!" Mickey said.

"Get into the kitchen." The Doctor ordered. "Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid. Vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet said.

"Just like Hannibal." The Doctor confirmed, "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?" Mickey asked.

"It's your kitchen." The Doctor pointed out.

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Rose said.

"Oh give it here," they heard Jackie say as she took the phone of Mickey, "What do we need."

"Anything with vinegar."

"Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs." They heard Jackie say as she grabbed the jars out of the cupboard.

"And you used to kiss this man?" The Doctor asked Rose wondering how she could put up with bad breath like that. There was a tense moment as they listen to the Slitheen break the door down and Jackie shout at Mickey to move out of the way as she threw the concoction over it. Rose relaxed when she heard a noise like a fart and her mum complaining about being covered it alien insides.

"Hannibal?" Rose asked having not really paid attention last time.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet answered.

"Oh, well there you go then." And the four of the poured themselves a glass of port from the decanter on the table and toasted Hannibal.

"Listen to this." Mickey said and put the phone up against the TV.

"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds. Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you Earth is at war."

"What? He's making it up. There's no weapon up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Indra asked.

"They did last time." Rose pointed out.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"They get the release codes."

"And the Slitheen go nuclear." The Doctor finished Rose's sentence.

"But why?" Harriet asked.

"Let's ask them." The Doctor said and he made his way over to the panel and opened the door. "You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away." Margaret finished off for him.

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?" Harriet asked.

"Profit. That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."

"The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chunks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel.

"At the cost of five billion lives." The Doctor spat out.

"Bargain."

"I give you a choice. Leave this planet or I'll stop you." The Doctor warned them.

"What, you? Trapped in your box?" Margaret sneered.

"Yes. Me." The Doctor said simply and closed the shutters on Margaret's laughing face.

~~DW~~

"Alright Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do." Jackie said.

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet suggested.

"Doctor, any ideas?" Rose asked.

"There's always been away out." The Doctor said gravely.

"Then let's use it."

"I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe." The Doctor said to Jackie.

"Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing. If I don't dare, everyone on this planet dies."

"Do it." Rose said simply.

"You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me?" The Doctor said looking up at Rose wondering how someone could have such blind faith in him.

"Yeah."

"Please, Doctor. Please. She's my daughter. She's just a kid."

"Mum, this is what needs to be done. This is what the Doctor does. It's not all fun trips, it's saving the world by making the decision because nobody else will. It costs him everything he has sometimes but he still has to do it because if he doesn't everything would burn, and the universe would be worse off."

"I could save the world but lose you." The Doctor said to Rose looking into her eyes, shocked that she stood up for him, that she understood that he need to make the hard decisions sometimes.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine." Harriet said taking the responsibility off the Doctors' shoulders for once.

"And who the hell are you?" Jackie demanded.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chose for the people by the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

"So what's the plan?" Rose asked.

"You already said it." The Doctor said as he got the Emergency Protocols from the Red Box. The Doctor directed Mickey through each stage, "Use the buffalo password. It overrides everything."

"What're you doing?" Jackie asked.

"Hacking into the Royal Navy. We're in. Here it is. HMS Taureen, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right, we need to select a missile."

"We can't go nuclear. We don't have the defence codes." Mickey reminded the Doctor.

"We don't need it. All we need's an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A." Mickey read.

"That's the one. Select."

"I could stop you." Jackie said to Mickey.

"Do it, then." Mickey said almost wanting her to.

"You ready for this?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah." Mickey replied.

"Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire."

"Oh my God." They heard Jackie say confirming that the missile was on its way.

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked.

"Not solid enough. Built for short range attack, nothing this big."

"Aright, now I'm making the decision. I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about earthquakes. You can survive them by standing under a doorframe. Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on." Rose said as she started dragging the Prime Minister out of the cupboard. Harriet and Indra rushed over and started to move the other things out of the cupboard.

"It's on radar. Counter defence five five six."

"Stop them intercepting it."

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy."

"Five five six neutralised."

"Good." And the Doctor unplugged the phone going over to the cupboard that the other three had emptied and got in and sat next to Rose and grabbed her hand in his.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you both. Hannibal!" Harriet said just as the missile hit 10 Downing Street. They all felt the house collapse around them and they all prayed that Rose's idea would work as they got tossed around slightly from the impact. When it finally settled down the Doctor pushed the steel door off and Harriet stepped out.

"Made in Britain." Harriet said proudly.

"Oh, my God. Are you alright?" The policeman asked as he came running over to check on them.

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news." Harriet said automatically taking control.

"Yes ma'am." He said and ran off to do as he was told.

"I'll go with him." Indra said and followed after him.

"Someone's got one hell of a job sorting this lot out. Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go." The Doctor encouraged.

"Me? Huh. I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for you." Rose said.

"Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on!" Harriet said making her way through the pile of rubble. "We're safe! The Earth is safe!" She started saying as soon as she was close enough for the news crews to hear.

"I thought I knew the name. Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor said as they watched Harriet talk to the news crews.

"The crisis has passed! Ladies and gentlemen, I have something to say to you all here today! Mankind stands tall, proud and undefeated. God bless the human race."

~~DW~~

Rose sat in her mum's front room while the Doctor had gone back to the TARDIS claiming he had scans to do, Rose actually thought it was just because he was scared he was going to get another slap. They watched Harriet on the news and Rose was pleased to see that Indra was standing behind her. "Mankind stands tall, proud."

"Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is? Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there. My daughter saved the world!" Jackie said talking to Rose and the TV.

"I think the Doctor helped a bit." Rose teased glad to see her mum happy.

"Alright, then. Him too. You should be given knighthoods."

"That's not why he does things. No fuss. He just moves on. He's not that bad if you gave him a chance."

"He's good in a crisis, I'll give him that."

"Oh, now the world has changed. You're saying nice things about him."

"Well, I reckon I've got no choice. There's no getting rid of him since you're infatuated."

"I'm not infatuated." Rose said knowing it was more than that.

"What does he eat?" Jackie asked.

"How do you mean?"

"I was going to do a shepherd's pie. All of us. A proper sit down, cos I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you and him and that life you lead. Only, I don't know, he's an alien. For all I know, he eats grass and safety pins and things."

"He does eat, but he won't join us. Maybe one day but not today."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not something he does." Rose said. She picked up her phone as it started ringing, "Hello."

"Right, I'll be a couple of hours, then we can go. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up.

"My mother's cooking dinner for us."

"I don't do that."

"I know I told her that."

"Ok, you've got a choice you can stay there if you want, but right now there's this plasma storm brewing in the Horsehead Nebula. Fires are burning ten million miles wide, I could fly the TARDIS right into the heart of it then ride the shock wave all the way out. Hurtle right across the sky and end up anywhere. Your choice."

"Like I'm going to say no." Rose said laughing and went into her room to start packing.

"Rose I was thinking." Jackie started to say as she walked into Rose's room and saw she was packing a bag, "Don't go, sweetheart. Please don't go."

Rose tried to explain to her mum why she was going as she finished packing and headed out the flat and towards the TARDIS, and her mum tried to convince her to stay.

"I'll get a proper job. I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will." Jackie pleaded.

"I'm not leaving because of you. I'm travelling, that's all, and then I'll come back."

"But it's not safe."

"Mum, if you saw it out there you'd never stay home, it's amazing and there's so much to see and do. It's impossible to stay still now."

"Got enough stuff?" The Doctor asked slightly amused at how much she was bringing with her.

"Last time I stepped in there, it was spur of the moment. Now I'm signing up. You're stuck with me. Ha!" Rose said passing her rucksack to the Doctor and went to say goodbye to Mickey.

"See you later Mickey. And next time I come back, I want to hear all about your girlfriend. Alright? No more staying still, move with the moment." Rose said, she kissed him on the cheek, "Look after my mum for me please."

"Good luck, next time I will, I promise."

"You still can't promise me. What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and she's left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?"

"Mum we've been over this, you're forgetting. It's a time machine. I could go travelling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back ten seconds would have passed. And as for the Doctor leaving me on some moon, the TARDIS would never let that happen. So stop worrying. I'll see you two soon." Rose gave her mum one last hug and stepped into the TARDIS.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N So, sorry this is late but real life has been pretty crappy. My sister got engaged to a guy she's been seeing for a couple of years now on the 20th and he changed his mind and sent her an email on Christmas saying he was calling it off. She didn't actually read the email until she'd been at his boxing day get together for five hours, so I've spent a lot of time with her telling her he clearly isn't worth it. I was going to update a few days ago when it started to quieten down but then my laptop crashed and I forgot to back up my files so this is actually my second version of this chapter. I know it's not as good as my original but truth be told I just want to move in from the whole thing and start new for 2014. I may change this chapter at a later date, but as of right now I'm leaving it as this one. Happy new year.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, so please don't sue. But if you do you could only win, my impressive three cardboard boxes, two thirds of a Christmas, a three year old Christmas pudding, eight used tissues, my left shoe, and a bag of used party poppers.

Chapter Seven: My First Dalek.

"Ok, so where are we?" Rose asked as jumped down from the jump seat.

"Don't know. Some kind of distress signal drawing the TARDIS off course. We're on Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

"Ok and when are we?"

"Two thousand and twelve."

Rose opened the door and the Doctor and her made their way around.

"Look like a museum." Rose said when the Doctor flicked the lights on.

"An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's a milometer from the Rosewell spaceship."

"That's a bit of Slitheen! They have a Slitheen arm, stuffed like a Dodo."

"Oh, look at you." The Doctor said as he saw the head of a Cyberman.

"What's that?" Rose asked trying to block out the last time she came face to face with a Cyberman.

"An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

"You're not old, you look great to me." Rose said "So is that where the signal is coming from?"

"No, it's stone cold dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help." Before Rose could stop him the Doctor touched the display case and the alarms all went off.

"You just had to touch it, didn't you?" Rose asked as armed guards rushed in from all sides and cut them off from the TARDIS. "If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you Exhibit A."

The Doctor and Rose were lead away by some of the guards leading them to the man in charge.

~~DW~~

"And this is the last. Paid eight hundred thousand dollars for it."

"Well what does it do?"

"Well, you see the tubes on the side? It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel."

"I really wouldn't hold it like that." The Doctor said.

"Shut it." Goddard said.

"Really, though, that's wrong."

"Is it dangerous?" Adam asked slightly worried now.

"No, it just looks silly." The Doctor said as he reached for the item. He stopped when he heard the guards' firing bolts click all around him and Rose. He looked up at Van Stratton and he passed over the object.

"You just need to be delicate." Rose said as the Doctor started to stroke the item, playing several different notes.

"It's a musical instrument."

"And it's a long way from home."

"Here let me." Van Stannen said and the Doctor passed it back over to him. He tried but the notes he produced were harsh.

"She did you had to be delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprints. It needs precision." Van Statten loosen his grip and raised his finger slightly and finally managed to produce some nicer sounds.

"Very good." The Doctor complimented "Quite the expert."

"As are you." Van Statten said as he casually tossed the instrument to the side. "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. And you are?"

"Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake."

"Pretty much just sums me up, yeah."

"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice. You're quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty."

"She gonna smack you if you get calling her she." Rose said meaning every word of it.

"She's English too, I didn't notice earlier. Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend."

"This is Mr Henry Van Statten." Adam supplied.

"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose asked.

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet."

"The internet?" Rose questioned raising an eyebrow.

"The whole world thinks nobody owns it, and let just keep it that way kids." Van Statten said.

"So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock up?" The Doctor commented.

"And you claim greater knowledge?"

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am."

"And yet, I captured you. Right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me."

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You want to see it." Van Statten asked and Rose decided to interrupt before they whipped them out and measured, although that might actually be interesting Rose thought letting her mind wonder to some more of her dirtier fantasies of the Doctor.

"Blimey, you can smell the testosterone in here." She said instead.

"Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down. You English. Look after the girl. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

Before the Doctor could leave Rose grabbed his arm "Doctor I have a bad feeling about what is in his cage, just be careful, ok? I need you safe remember that." Rose said.

"I will be, ok. Watch out for that Adam guy." The Doctor whispered back and pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head and followed Van Statten out of the room leaving Rose with Adam.

~~DW~~

"Sorry about the mess. Mr Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods. What do you think that is?" Adam asked as he handed Rose a piece of metal.

"A lump of metal." Rose said uninterested.

"Yeah. Yeah, but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft. The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist."

"No! Really?" Rose said sarcastically

"I know it sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life.

"I'm gobsmacked, yeah. And you what catalogue it?"

"Best job in the world." Adam boasted.

"Sure it is." Rose snorted. "How'd you end up here then?"

"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"You're a genius?"

"Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever. When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defence System. Nearly caused World War Three." Adam said thinking he was impressing Rose.

"What, and that's funny?" Rose asked more disgusted than she was before, "What if it had? What if innocent people had died because of your joke?"

"Well, you should have been there to see them running about." Adam said looking down.

"Well, the real question is, can you get me down stairs? To see what's in the cage?" Rose asked.

"Sure I can do that." Adam said still trying to impress her.

~~DW~~

"Level three access. Special clearance from Mr Van Statten." Adam bluffed as he and Rose passed the guard into the cage. "Don't get too close." He warned her.

"Hello. Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler, I can help you. But you have to do as I tell you, understand? You will have to do exactly as I say."

"_Yes_." The Dalek answered.

"What?" Rose asked making sure she knew exactly what it was agreeing to.

"_They torture me, but still they fear me. Do you fear me?"_ The Dalek asked trying to play on Rose's emotions.

"No." Rose answered honestly.

"_I am dying."_

"I can help."

"_I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die I have met a human who was not afraid. My race is dead and I shall die alone._"

"You can see the sunlight one last time, I can give you that much." Rose said as she touched the Dalek, this time she left her hand on it for longer hoping that if she mixed more of her DNA with it, it wouldn't kill anyone.

"Rose, no!" Adam shouted.

"Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction!"

Rose moved her hand from the head piece as Simmons entered holding his drill, "What the hell have you done?" He shouted at her as he made his way towards the Dalek. The Dalek raised it plunger, "What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?" Simmons teased.

"No!" Rose shouted "You don't have to hurt him." She said as she pushed her way pass Simmons and got closer to the Dalek. The TV screen in the cell turned on and Rose saw the Doctor on it looking terrified.

"You've got to get out of there Rose!"

"Doctor, don't worry. It won't hurt me and it won't hurt anyone else as long as I'm safe." Rose said talking to the Doctor. She turned to face the Dalek, "You won't hurt anyone will you?" Rose asked it.

_"No, I will not. I will obey my orders."_ The Dalek replied.

"Why is it taking your orders Rose? What did you do?"

"I touched it. It absorbed my DNA. It just wants to see the sunlight one last time Doctor. Get everyone else out of here, and we'll make our way up."

"Rose it can't feel, it doesn't feel." The Doctor said. Just then the shutter doors went down locking them in the cage. "What just happened?"

"Someone locked the doors, but we both know that it can get through those locks and if they are pointing guns at me on the other side then it will attack. Just get them out Doctor."

"Ok." The Doctor turned to Van Statten. "Get everyone out of there. Rose has managed to gain control for the moment but it will kill on sight if it wants to. Get them out."

"No. No one will leave. I want that thing alive and its cell."

"You idiot! You'll get everyone killed!" Rose shouted at him. "Ok," she said turning back to the Dalek "Let's go, but remember no killing."

The Dalek moved towards the door and placed its plunger over the keypad, Rose only had to wait thirty seconds before the door slid opened and Rose saw that the guards where still on the other side. Pointing guns towards her. "Don't shoot!" She shouted but they didn't pay attention to her and started to shoot.

"_Exterminate!"_ The Dalek shouted and proceed to kill everyone in the room. Rose looked at it horrified "Why did you do that?" Rose asked.

_"I had to follow my primary orders. I must protect my creator. I must protect you."_ It responded.

Rose and the Dalek slowly made their way through the building going higher and higher until they reach the point of no return. Rose and the Dalek entered the loading bay and again they were surrounded by people trying to shot them, "wait use your shielding to protect us both and we can get the elevator and get out of here."

"_I obey_." The Dalek said as it force field went around Rose and they made their way through loading bay with everyone trying to kill them but at least this time they survive Rose thought to herself as they entered the lift. "Ok let's go all the way up." Rose said as she pressed the button for the top floor. The elevator stopped and the doors opened and Rose saw Van Statten and the Doctor standing in the office.

"Don't move. Don't do anything. It won't hurt anyone, it can't unless it disobeys my orders." Rose said calmly to the Doctor.

"Why you Rose? Why is it following your orders?" The Doctor asked not understanding.

"_I extrapolated the DNA of Rose Tyler. What am I now? She has contaminated me."_ The Dalek answered. It turned its eyestalk when Van Statten tried to move away from them all. _"Van Statten. You tortured me. Why?"_

"I wanted to help you, I just, I don't know. I was trying to help. I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you. I wanted you better." Van Statten tried to make excuses and when that didn't seem to work he change tactics to begging, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I just want you to talk!" He admitted as he backed up against the wall.

"_Then hear me talk now. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"_

"Don't do it! Don't kill him! You don't have to do anymore, remember. There must be something else, not just killing. What else do you want? I know you want something more."

"_I want freedom."_

"Ok, let's leave them here alive and keep on going up. Just you, me and the Doctor."

"_I obey_." It replied and headed back towards the elevator as Rose and the Doctor entered as well. The Doctor was planning on how to get out and save Rose but at the same time he was curious as to what Rose's DNA had done to the Dalek. It had completely changed it, it wasn't killing. It just wanted to not be tortured. The elevator stopped and the three of them exited and the Dalek pointed it gun towards the ceiling and shot a hole in it letting through some sunlight straight down onto its eyepiece.

"You're out. You made it."

"_How does it feel?"_ The Dalek asked. It then opened its casing at the middle and the dome section lifted up to reveal the one-eyed mutant within. It moved one of its tendrils out into the sunlight.

"What's it doing?" The Doctor asked not believing what he was seeing. Here he was, the last Time Lord because the Daleks killed everyone else, they had killed hundreds of people and he could finish it. But he didn't because it was the same creature anymore.

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants." Rose said.

"But it can't."

"It didn't kill Van Statten, or me, or all those people in the loading bay when it could of. It's changing, changing for the better."

"They're all dead Rose. All the Time Lords." The Doctor said in a whisper.

"I know."

"_Why do we survive?"_ The Dalek asked.

"I don't know."

"_I am the last of the Daleks."_

"You're not even that. Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating. And you know that."

"_Into what?"_

"Something new. I'm sorry." The Doctor apologised.

"Isn't that better?" Rose asked.

"Not for a Dalek."

"_I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die."_

"Is that what you really want?" Rose asked making sure.

"_This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!"_

"Ok, I order you to die."

"_Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?"_

"Yeah, sometimes."

"_So am I. Exterminate!"_ The Dalek closed it eye and raised it armour, as Rose moved away and the Doctor pulled her into his arms, they watched it rise into the air. The balls on its lower body detached from its body and spread around it creating a force field, and then it imploded, keeping Rose and the Doctor safe.

~~DW~~

The Doctor and Rose walked away hand in hand, "So Doctor I was thinking."

"When aren't you?" The Doctor teased.

"Well, I think we could always give Adam a trip to say thank you."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"He did get me into the cage, and if I hadn't of gotten in there God only knows what they could of done to that Dalek. Imagine if it had woken up and wasn't mixed with my DNA. It would have been horrific."

"I still don't see why I should give him a trip. If you want to ask him out you can keep that on Earth and out of the TARDIS." The Doctor pouted.

"Trust me Doctor, he's not my type." Rose laughed, "Nowhere near in fact. I just thought it would be a nice thank you."

"Fine." The Doctor said as they reached the TARDIS, "A little piece of home. Better than nothing."

"Is that the end of it, the Time War?"

"I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?"

"You may be the last Time Lord but you aren't ever going to be alone as long as me and the TARDIS have something to say about it." Rose said giving his hand a squeeze. Before the Doctor could say anything Adam appeared.

"We'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it with cement, like it never existed."

"About time." Rose said.

"I'll have to go back home." Adam said looking down at his feet in a defeated manner.

"Well, actually me and the Doctor where thinking that maybe to say thank you, we could take you on a trip."

"Yeah fine, let's get out."

"A trip to the stars. To somewhere else where."

"What're you talking about?"

"It's on your own head." The Doctor said turning around and unlocking the TARDIS.

"What're you doing? She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in." Adam said as he watch the Doctor and Rose enter the TARDIS. "Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box? Rose?" Adam opened the door and saw how big it was on the inside. He left and walked around the outside and came back in, "How does it work? It's bigger on the inside!" Adam said in a state of shock.

"Alright now we can go." The Doctor said slightly worried that Rose had asked if Adam could come because she wanted to have some else on board and was getting bored of him. He decided not to think about it as he started to flick controls and push buttons as Rose walked up and pushed the button the Doctor was about to press.

"Let's go Doctor. One thank you trip and then back to our travels."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Sorry about the lateness of my update but real life has been getting in the way again. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often though.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Chapter Eight: Anyone Up For a Long Game?

The TARDIS landed and Rose looked over at Adam who was on the floor because he hadn't managed to grab something in time to keep himself up right.

"Right just wait here for a moment while me and Rose check that it's safe enough for you to come out." The Doctor said and walked towards the door with Rose. "Right I thought you'd like a chance to show off."

"Too right, thank you Doctor." She said smiling at him with her tongue poking out between her teeth.

"So, it's the year two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship. No, wait a minute, space station, and er, go and try that gate over there. Off you go."

"Two hundred thousand?"

"Two hundred thousand."

"Right." Rose opened the doors to the TARDIS "Adam? You can come out now." Rose and the Doctor watched as Adam came out and his jaw dropped opened.

"Oh, my God!"

"Don't worry you get used to it." Rose said as if it was nothing.

"Where are we?"

"Good question. Let's see. So judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen,"

"Yeah?"

"Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here though. They could do with turning the heating down. Tell you what – let's try that gate." Rose said. The Doctor was getting a kick out of watching Rose play tour guide, and he knew he'd let her bring on more people if it made her happy. "Come on let's go." Rose said jerking the Doctor away from his thoughts. Rose went through the doors the Doctor pointed out earlier and saw a window with a spectacular view of the Earth below.

"Here we go! And this is, well I'll let the Doctor describe it."

"The forth great and bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety six billion. The hub if a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle." The Doctor would have continued but Adam fainted.

"He's your boyfriend." The Doctor said to Rose poking fun at her.

"He so is not. First of all, like I said he's not my type. Second I want a man. And third I want a man who can look at this and everything else we'll see and react with a childlike wonder but still able to make those hard decisions. So he doesn't even get one out of three."

"Is that all on your list then?" The Doctor asked thinking that he filled all those requirements.

"Why are you applying for the position?" Rose flirted. The Doctor was saved for having to come up with a reply as they heard Adam starting to get up. The Doctor and Rose helped Adam to his feet and started towards the door they just came through ready to look around.

"Come on, Adam. Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners." The Doctor would have continued but stopped as a man pushed pass him "Out of my way!" He grunted at them. Out of nowhere people started to appear and push pass them to get to the food vender stands

"Thank you very much indeed." "Somebody there?" "That's great." "What do you want, love?" "All right, keep moving." "I'll be with you lot in a minute." "Here you are." "One at a time." "What now, what was it?" "Kronkburger with cheese, kronkburger with pajatos." "Do you want a drink?" "Oi, you mate. Stop pushing." "Get back. I said get back."

"Fine cuisine?" Rose asked watching the hordes of people around her.

"My watch must be wrong. No, it's fine. It's weird."

"That's what you get for showing off. Maybe we landed wrong again? Although I don't know if you've noticed but every here is human."

"Millions of planets, the millions of species?" Adam asked.

"Good point Rose. Actually, that is a good point. Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."

"No, I'm just a bit time sick." The Doctor grabbed Adam by the shoulders and pulled him towards the closest vendor.

"No, you just need a bit of grub. Oi, mate – how much is a kronkburger?"

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now join the queue." The vendor told them pointing to the queue of people waiting to be served.

"Money. We need money. Let's use a cashpoint." The Doctor said pulling Adam out of the queue and towards the closest point. He pulled his sonic out and held it to the screen for a few seconds until it beeped and dropped out a credit bar. The Doctor handed it over to Adam, "There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets."

Adam looked at the bar, "How does it work?"

The Doctor who had started walking away turned around, "Go and find out. Stop nagging me. The thing is Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it. Off you go, then." Rose went to follow Adam to make sure he didn't get himself into trouble.

"Oh, and Doctor?" Rose said turning around.

"Yeah?"

"You don't always kiss strangers. Now run along and I'll watch Adam."

The Doctor didn't say anything as he watched Rose walk off to find Adam and make sure he was okay.

Rose watched the Doctor as he approached two young women she remembered, she pushed the slightly jealous thoughts of the Doctor kissing other people as she tried to find Adam among all the people. Rose found Adam eating a Kronkburger and she went and to go order herself something waiting for the Doctor to come back.

"Try this. It's called Zaphic. It's nice, it's like a, er, Slush Puppy." Rose said holding her cup out for Adam.

"What flavour?" Adam asked looking at it warily, Rose sat down and took another sip and tried how to describe it best.

"Sort of beef?"

"Oh, my God. It's like everything's gone, home, family, everything." Rose felt sorry for him again remembering what it felt like her first time so she pulled out her phone and held it out to him.

"This helps. The Doctor gave it a bit of a top-up. Who's back home, your mum and dad?"

"Yeah."

"Phone them up."

"But that's one hundred and ninety eight thousand years ago."

"Honestly, try it. Go on."

"Is there a code for planet Earth?"

Rose laughed thinking that it actually made sense considering how on Earth everywhere had a code, "Go on." She encouraged and Adam took the phone and dialled his parents' home number.

"It's ringing." He told Rose as though he expected it not to work. "Hi. It's me. I've sort of gone travelling. I meet these people and we've gone travelling together. But, er ,I'm fine, and I'll call you later. Love you. Bye." Adam hung up and looked at Rose, "That is so." Before he could finish they heard alarms go off and everyone started to leave the area they were in.

"Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" The Doctor shouted over to them waving them over. Rose held her hand out for her phone and Adam reluctantly passed it back to her.

~~DW~~

The Doctor, Rose and Adam followed Cathica and Suki into one of the side rooms were there were seven people seated around an octagonal desk with a central chair in the middle with wires coming out of it. Rose, The Doctor, and Adam stood to one side by the railings watching what was going on in the room.

"Now, everybody behave. We have a management inspection. How do you want, it by the book?" She turned and asked the Doctor.

"Right from scratch, thanks." The Doctor said with a grin.

"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot, - my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to Floor Five Hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy."

"Actually, it's the law." Suki corrected from her spot on the floor.

"Yes, thank you, Suki." Cathica said shooting daggers at her, "Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." Cathica said as she walked up to the central chair and sat down. "And engage safety." The seven people around the table held their hands over hand prints on the table in front of them. The wall panels around the room lit up and Cathica clicked her fingers opening the door in her forehead. The seven people around the table put their hands on the hand prints.

"And three, two, and spike." A light shot into Cathica head from the machine above her chair, flowing.

"Compressed information, streaming into her." The Doctor realised, "Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer."

"No way could she remember all that." Rose said.

"She won't. There's too much. Her head would blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets."

"So, what about all these people round the edge?" Rose asked watching as Adam leaned closer looking at the technology with slight longing.

"They've all got tiny little chips in their heads, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power."

"But it's wrong, isn't it Doctor. I mean this can't be good."

"It's wrong Rose, it's so very wrong for this time period."

Rose looked over at Adam again and saw that he had at least backed away from the bar hoping that he heard that last bit, Rose felt hope as she approached him.

"You alright?"

"I can see her brain." Adam said.

"Do you want to get out?"

"No. No, this technology, it's amazing."

"You heard the Doctor, it's wrong. It shouldn't be like this. It isn't amazing at all."

"Rose," The Doctor said interrupting their conversation.

"Yeah Doctor."

"We've got trouble."

"When don't we?" Rose laughed.

They watched on as Rose tried to figure out a way to stop Suki from taking the promotion that would kill her and hoped that she had stopped Adam from getting a brain door. As she was thinking Suki received an electrical shock from her console and the other six members removed their hands as well, the information flowing into Cathica stopped and her brain door closed.

"Come off it, Suki. I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?" Cathica demanded embarrassed and annoyed.

"Sorry. It must have been a glitch." Suki apologised.

"Oh, well don't let it happen again." Before she could say anything else a huge screen turned on "Promotion." A computerised voice said and the words flashed up on the screen.

"Come on. This is it. Come on. Oh God, make it me. Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name."

"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor Five Hundred." The same computerised voice said.

"I don't believe it. Floor Five Hundred!" Suki said getting off the floor and walking towards the screen in a state of shock.

"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you." Cathica complained.

"I don't know. I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes." Suki said still in shock.

"That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor Five Hundred for three years."

Rose was about to say something to stop Suki from going when she felt a tingle in the back of her mind, the TARDIS showed her that Suki had to go. The TARDIS enveloped her mind in a warm embrace apologising that it had to be this way.

"What's Floor Five Hundred?" Adam asked curious as to what the big deal was about.

"The walls are made of gold."

~~DW~~

They walked with Suki towards the elevator, "Cathica, I'm going to miss you. Floor Five Hundred, thank you." She said to the Doctor.

"I didn't do anything." He replied truthfully.

"Well, you're my good luck charm." She said giddy with excitement.

"Alright." The Doctor agreed, "I'll hug anyone." Leaning down to hug Suki.

Rose snorted at that walking away to talk to Adam, "Come on, it's not that bad."

"What, with the head thing?" Adam said motioning to his forehead.

"Well, yeah, that's a little creepy. But she has closed it now."

"Yeah, but…It's everything. It freaks me out. And I just need to…If I could just cool down, sort of acclimatise."

"How'd ya mean?" Rose asked.

"Maybe I go just go and sit on the observation deck. Would that be alright? Soak it in, you know. Pretend I'm a citizen of the year two hundred thousand."

"Do you want one of me to come with ya?" Rose asked hoping he would still say no.

"No, no, you stick with the Doctor. You'd rather be with him. It's going to take a better man than me to get between you two. Anyway I'll be on the deck." Adam said getting up from his seat.

"Ok, just wait by the TARIDS if it gets a bit too much."

"Why can't I borrow your key to get in?" Adam asked.

"Because nobody else is having my key." Rose said tucking her key beneath her shirt.

"Thanks for understanding." Adam said and gave Rose a hug before walking off in the direction of the observation deck. Rose made her way back to the Doctor.

"Oh, my God, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting." Suki said realising the time and she started grabbing her bags. "I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" She said as she stepped into the lift and the doors closed.

"Good riddance." Cathica said.

"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going up stairs." The Doctor said not understanding Cathicas' response.

"We won't. Once you go to Floor Five Hundred you never come back." The Doctor looked at Rose with a worried expression.

The Doctor, Rose and Cathica made their way back through the cafeteria area as the Doctor asked Cathica questions.

"Have you ever been up there?"

"I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with a promotion. No one gets to Five Hundred except for the chosen few."

The Doctor and Rose followed Cathica as she made her way back into the news room.

"Look they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?" Cathica asked getting annoyed by all the questions.

"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" The Doctor asked sitting in the broadcaster chair.

"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all." Cathica said, "You're not management, are you?" She asked looking up from her clip board.

"At last! She's clever." The Doctor said mockingly.

"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."

"Don't even ask?"

"Well, why would I?"

"You're a journalist." The Doctor said as though he was explaining to a two year old. "Why's all the crew human?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"There's no aliens on board. Why?" Rose asked looking around.

"I don't know. No real reason. They're not banned or anything."

"Then where are they?"

"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats."

"What threats?"

"I don't know all of them. Usual stuff." Cathica said defensively "And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all."

"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice."

"Doctor, I think if there as any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything." Cathica said proudly.

"We can see better. This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."

"It's cutting edge." Cathica defended again.

"It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out years ago."

"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked noticing again how he said we, not I but we.

"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."

"And how would you know?"

"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?" The Doctor asked looking back at Cathica.

"Ninety one years ago.".

~~DW~~

"We are so going to get in trouble." Cathica said as the Doctor and Rose stood a little bit away from her sonicing open a control panel in one of the corridors. "You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off." Cathica told them as though it was the end of the world to be told off.

"Rose tell her to button it." The Doctor said as he continued to sonic the door.

"You can't just vandalise the place. Someone's going to notice!" Cathica said as the door clicked and opened. The Doctor started to go through the wires in the control panel looking like he was having the time of his life.

"This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." Cathica said walking away from them.

"Go on, then. See ya!" The Doctor said really not caring either way at this point.

"I can't just leave you, can I?!" Cathica said clearly confused as to what she should do.

"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating don. It's boiling. What's with the heating in this place? Can't they do something about it?" Rose said wishing she hadn't chosen a long sleeved top again.

"I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."

"Something to do with the turbine!" The Doctor mocked.

"Well, I don't know!" Cathica said annoyed that he was making fun of her again.

"Exactly!" The Doctor said stopping what he was doing to look at her, "I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose. Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of question."

"Thank you, you're not doing so bad yourself." Rose replied.

"Why is it so hot?" The Doctor asked as he turned back to the wiring.

"One minute you're worried about the Empire and next it's the central heating!" Cathica said not understanding how the two could possibly be linked.

"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." The Doctor said as he pulled at a bundle of wires disconnecting them. Cathica ran her hands through her hair not understanding the pair at all.

"Here we go." The Doctor said as he pulled up the schematics on a monitor and turned it around so Rose and Cathica could also see. "Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout." The Doctor moved out of the way and Cathica moved forward grabbing hold of the screen.

"This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange…and you're looking at pipes?" Cathica looked around to face the Doctor.

"But there's something wrong." He said nodding back at the screen.

"I suppose."

"Well go on then."

"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channelling massive amounts of heat down."

"All the way from the top."

"Floor Five Hundred."

"Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party and I do love a good party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?" Rose asked looking at the Doctor.

"You can't." Cathica said looking at Rose sharply. "You need a key."

"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here." The Doctor said gesturing towards the screen as he made his way in front of it again. "Here we go. Override two one five point nine."

The screen continued the number sequence for him as the monitor showed the numbers 215.9976/31.

"How come it's given you the code?" Cathica asked annoyed.

"Someone up there likes me." The Doctor said looking up at a camera.

~~DW~~

Rose and the Doctor made their way towards the elevator ready to go and see what the fuss was about, Cathica following behind them.

"Come on. Come with us." Rose offered knowing that they needed her.

"No way."

"Bye!" The Doctor said with a wave.

"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." Cathica said walking off sounding like a petulant child.

"That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you and me." The Doctor said taking Rose's hand.

"Just how I like it."

The Doctor was silent on the way up and Rose knew he was thinking over what was going on so she just let him get on with it watching the numbers in the screen change as they got higher until they finally stopped and the elevator door opened. The Doctor got out first and looked around.

"The walls are not made of gold." He turned around to face Rose, "You should go back downstairs."

"No way, I'm not leaving you just because you have a bad feeling. Now come on, let's try that door over there." Rose said pointing towards the door she knew they needed. The Doctor followed behind her as they entered the room where the editor and his staff where.

"I started without you." The editor said turning away from the main screen to look at them, "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you two, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and leave not a single footprint?" Rose looked over and saw Suki sitting at the control again.

"Doctor, look at Suki." Rose said pointing at her.

"She's dead." The Doctor said, "The chips in their heads, the chips keep going, like puppets."

"Oh! You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter, because we're off. Nice to meet you. Come one." The Doctor said gesturing at Rose to follow him out but before they could leave two of the workers grabbed the Doctor and Rose.

"Tell me who you are." The editor asked again.

"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?" The Doctor said as the workers held him and Rose in place.

"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."

"And who's that?"

"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." Before anyone could say anything there was a loud growling and snarling sound.

"Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client." The editor clicked his fingers and pointed upwards, the Doctor and Rose looked up seeing the Jagrafess.

"Let me guess, he's in charge." Rose said.

"He, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max." The editor said with a smile. "Put them in manacles." He direct another one of the workers. The editor watched as they were chained together. "Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the boards closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."

"So all the people on Earth are slaves." Rose said.

"Well, now, there's an interesting question. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved."

"Yes." Rose and the Doctor said together.

"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all you're going to say? Yes?"

"Yes."

"You're no fun." The editor moaned like a little child.

"Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am." The Doctor said moving his wrists trying to see if he could get free.

"Oh, he's tough isn't he?" The editor said looking at Rose, "But come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit?"

"Somebody must of noticed."

"From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it. Then they just carry on, living their lives, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."

Rose saw the Doctor watching something out of the corner of his eye and she knew that Cathica had arrived. Now all they needed to do was keep him talking.

"What about you? You're not a Jagrafess, you're human what's in it for you?"

"Well, simply being human doesn't pay very well."

"But you could have done all this on your own."

"No." The editor chuckled, "I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also the Jagrafess, umm," The editor paused and whispered loudly "needed some help installing himself."

The Doctor looked up, "no wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span?"

"Three thousand years."

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system." The Doctor said hoping that Cathica was paying attention and was going to start thinking.

"But that's why you're so dangerous." The editor said pointing at the Doctor, "Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?" The editor snapped his finger and the Doctor was electrocuted through the manacles. Rose could feel some of the energy through her manacles as well although it wasn't a strong as the Doctor's voltage it was still enough to hurt.

"Leave her alone. I'm the Doctor, she's Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering." The Doctor said franticly trying to save Rose from any more pain.

"Tell me who you are!" The editor demanded again.

"I just said!"

"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly," The editor stopped midsentence as the Jagrafess started growling again.

"Time Lord." The editor said with glee and having the answer.

"What?" The Doctor asked not understanding how he got the answer so quickly.

"Oh, yes! The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago." The editor reached out to touch Rose's face and she jerked away from his touch.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Time travel."

"Someone's been telling you lies." The Doctor tried again.

"Young master Adam Mitchell?" The editor said walking away from them clicking his fingers, he turned on the monitor and Rose saw that Adam had screwed up his second chance by being a stupid human again.

"What the hell did he do!" Rose shouted beyond annoyed that he'd done this again. "The stupid idiot! He's telling them everything!"

"And through him, I know everything about you." The editor said smugly, "Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you know and seen in your…T-A-R-D-I-S. TARIDIS."

"Well you'll never get your hands on her. I'll die first."

"Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key." The editor said as he walked across to Rose and gave the chain around her neck a pull, pulling of the key. Rose tried not to make a sound but the Doctor must have noticed as he shot her a concerned look. "Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."

"And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold." Rose saw the Doctor smile slightly as Cathica left the place she had been standing and went to do her part to stop the Jagrafess.

The Doctor and Rose watched the editor as he bounced around with a happy grin on his face when the control panel starting beeping. The Jagrafess started growling again and the editor made his way quickly over to see what was happening his good mood quickly evaporating.

"What's happening." They watched on the screen the information stream coming from Adam suddenly stopped and he slumped over in the broadcasters chair. "Someone's disengaged the safety." The editor said turning around to look at another screen, "Who's that?" He asked as he pulled up another holo-monitor.

"It's Cathica!" Rose said proudly. "And that's Cathica with a C."

"And she's thinking. She using what she knows." The Doctor said just as proudly.

"Terminate her access." The editor said the corpse of Suki.

"Everything I told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it. Look at that." The Doctor said nodding at the icicles as they started to melt.

"It's getting hot."

"I said, terminate. Burn out her mind!" Placing his hands on top of Suki's. The consoles started exploding knocking the editor and the operators off of the console and on to the floor. The control panel for the manacles shut down and Rose was able to get free.

"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano." The Jagrafess realised what the Doctor was saying was true and started snarling orders out to the editor.

"Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it. It's impossible. A member of staff with an idea?" The editor said as he took the seat Suki had been sitting in and tried to reverse what Cathica had done not paying attention to the people behind him.

Rose put her hand into the Doctor's pocket trying to find his sonic screwdriver to get him out of his manacles. Rose flicked the switch and pointed it at the manacles as the air vents started to steam.

"Oi! Mate, want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body - massive bang." He shrugged out of his manacles, "See you in the headlines!" He quipped as he grabbed Rose's hand and ran out of the room towards the side room with Cathica still sitting in the chair. The Doctor let go of Rose's hand and made his way over to her, he clicked his finger to close the portal and helped her towards to the elevator.

~~DW~~

When they reached Floor 139, the Doctor, Rose and Cathica walked out of the elevator towards where they had parked the TARDIS.

"We're just going to go. I hate tidying up. Too many question. You'll manage."

"You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me." Cathica said full of doubt.

"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate. All back to normal."

"What about your friend?" Cathica asked gesturing towards Adam who was waiting by the TARDIS with a sheepish look on his face.

"He's not my friend." The Doctor said turning around to leave. They walked towards the TARDIS without a goodbye, after all they both hated goodbyes.

"I'm all right now." Adam said as they got closer, "Much better. And I've got your phone. Look, it…it all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge." Adam rambled trying to dig himself out of trouble. The Doctor didn't say anything as he grabbed Adam by the neck and pushed him into the TARDIS. Adam looked up at Rose as she entered after them to try and see if she would help him convince the Doctor to give him a second chance. He was disappointed to see that she wasn't going to help as she grabbed her phone out of his hand and walked across to the Doctor as he set the controls.

~~DW~~

Adam stepped out of the TARDIS nervously not knowing what to expect.

"It's my house. I'm home!" Adam said with relief, "Oh, my God, I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out the airlock."

"Is there something you want to tell me?" The Doctor asked giving him one last chance to make things better for himself.

"No. What do you mean?" Adam asked feigning ignorance.

The Doctor walked over to the answer phone machine and picked it up, "The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and pointed it at the answer phone making it explode. "That's it then. See ya."

"How do you mean, see you?" Adam asked confused and upset that he was being left behind.

"As in goodbye."

"But what about me? You can't just go. I've got my head." Adam said gesturing towards his head, "I've got a chip type two. My head opens."

"What like this?" The Doctor clicked his fingers.

"Don't" Adam said clicking his own fingers.

"Don't do what?" The Doctor said clicking his fingers again.

"Stop it!" Adam said closing it again.

"Alright that's enough now Doctor." Rose said.

"Thank you." Adam said happy that Rose was sticking up for him,, although that feeling only lasted a moment as Rose clicked her fingers to open it back up.

"Oi!"

"What? It's not our fault you got a brain door." Rose said.

"The whole of history could of changed because of you."

"I just wanted to help."

"You were helping yourself."

"And I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, but you can't just leave me like this."

"Yes I can. Cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average, unseen. Good luck with that."

"But I want to come with you." Adam tried again.

"I only take the best. I've got Rose."

"How can she be better than me?" Adam asked looking over at Rose who was leaning up against the TARDIS, "She's average at best, there's nothing interesting or special about her!" Adam said not understanding why he was losing out to Rose.

"She will have something you never will." The Doctor said going to open the door. "Rose isn't selfish like you, she doesn't look at what she can gain from the situation, she looks at how she can be improve by meeting people and helping them. Rose is better on her worst day than you'll ever be." The Doctor said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the TARDIS.

The Doctor put the TARDIS into the Time vortex as Rose sat down next to him. "I'm sorry." She said.

"Why what'd you do?" The Doctor asked looking over at her and sat down next to her.

"It's just that I thought that maybe he would appreciate the opportunity to see something amazing."

"Rose, look at me." Rose looked up and saw that the Doctor was staring into her eyes, "I don't blame you. You didn't make him go and get a chip, did you? You didn't tell him to almost change history for the worst, did you? No all you did was something kind and that is never something you should apologise for."

"Thanks Doctor," Before Rose could say anything more she noticed she started to cry.

"No need to cry." The Doctor said awkwardly. Rose pulled him into a hug, they stayed like that until she stopped crying, "Thanks for saying those nice things about me now and back with Adam. I'm going to bed." Rose said leaving one very confused Doctor and one very happy TARDIS as she made her way to her bedroom.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N Sorry this is short chapter but I don't think that Rose knowing what would happen would do things the same way this time round, so this made the episode a lot shorter but because of this I should have the next part ready to be posted in the next couple of days.

Disclaimer: I owned nothing.

* * *

Chapter Nine: My Only Father's Day.

Rose approached the Doctor holding a cup of tea for him as he tinkered with the TARDIS.

"Doctor, I've got you a cup of tea for you."

"Thanks Rose." The Doctor said as he got out from under the control panel. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…I was just wondering…I mean it's okay if we can't…" Rose looked at her feet slightly uncomfortable asking the Doctor for this favour.

"Rose what is it? What's wrong?" The Doctor asked worried now.

"I was thinking…could we…could we go see my dad when he was still alive?" Rose looked up at the Doctor with pleading eyes.

"Where's this come from all of a sudden?"

"He was alone. He was all alone when he died. He was hit by a car and the driver just took off, I don't want my dad to die alone."

"Rose are you sure this is good idea?"

"It's okay if we can't, if it goes against the laws of time or something. We don't have to go, but no one should be alone."

"No, we can do anything. I'm just more worried about you." The Doctor said honestly looking at her trying to see if she could handle seeing him die and doing nothing to help him.

"I want to see him, please."

"Your wish is my command." The Doctor said as he got up from the jump seat and went over to the controls to set them to the day Jackie and Pete Tyler got married.

~~DW~~

Rose stood at the back with the Doctor watching her parents getting married again.

"Repeat after me," The register told Pete, "I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Angela Suzette Prentice."

"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Suzanne…Suzette…Anita…" Pete stumbled over his words his nerves getting the better of him.

"Oh, just carry on. It's good enough for Lady Di." Jackie said looking up at Pete with love in her eyes.

"I thought he would have been taller, or something. You know?" Rose whispered to the Doctor as she watched her dad finish his vows.

"To be my lawful wedded wife, to love and behold till death do us part."

Rose and the Doctor watched as her parents exchanged rings and kissed. Jackie looked so happy that Rose wanted to help her by saving Pete but she knew she couldn't, he had to die and her mum had to be alone with the pain.

"Can we go to that day? The day he dies now, please." Rose looked at the Doctor pleading with her eyes.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" The Doctor asked worried that this might hurt Rose more than she realised.

"If you're with me, yes I can." Rose answered honestly knowing she would need the Doctor there with her if she was going to make it through this again.

~~DW~~

The TARDIS stopped and Rose walked towards the door looking back the Doctor once more and opened them.

"It's so weird. The day my father died. I thought it'd be all sort of grim and stormy. It's just an ordinary day." Rose said when the Doctor followed her out looking around her.

"The past is just another country. 1987's just the Isle of Wight." The Doctor looked down at Rose, "I'm going to ask one last time, are you sure about this? We can go now if you want."

Rose looked up and was surprised to see the concern shining through his eyes, so different from last time but still the same. "Yeah, yeah I am." The Doctor took Rose's hand and they walked in silence towards Jordan Road. They walked until they reached the end of the path across the road form another block of flats.

"This is it. Jordan Road. He was late. He'd been to get a wedding present, a vase. Mum always said, that stupid vase."

Rose and the Doctor watched as her dad pulled into the road in a beat up green van.

"He got out of his car and crossed the road." They watched as Pete stopped the car and leaned over to the passenger seat. "Oh god. Doctor hold me."

"What?" The Doctor looked at Rose not understanding and not sure what to do.

"If you don't hold me back, I'm gonna run across that road and save him. I know I will. And I know I can't do that." The Doctor looked at Rose with concern but did as she asked. Rose let out the breath she had been holding as she felt the Doctor's strong arms wrap around her middle holding her in place but also to offer her silent comfort. They watched as Pete opened his door and got out, turned around to lock his door as a car came hurtling around the corner. Pete just had time to raise his arm as the car hit into him.

"Quick, go to him. Before it's too late." The Doctor said letting go of Rose and pushing her slightly towards her dad. Rose looked at the Doctor quickly before she ran across the road and grasped her father's hand.

"Dad. It's me Rose. I know this won't make sense to you but you need to know that I love you. You are a great dad. And mum loves you even when she shouting about your daft ideas. We love you and miss you every single day. I wish I could save you, but I can't and it kills me. I'm so sorry." Rose said trying to hold back tears. Rose lent forward and kissed her dad on the forehead for the first and last time before she turned around and ran into the Doctor's arms. The Doctor pulled her into a hug and let her cry herself out before they headed back to the TARDIS hand in hand.

"Are you sure that was right thing for you to do?" The Doctor asked worried that it was too much for her and now she'd want to leave him for good.

"Yeah, yeah I am. I can feel the shift in my memories. He didn't die alone, the driver stayed and he got sentenced and mum got some closure. I'm glad I did it Doctor, even though it hurt like hell."

"Ok, let's go somewhere fun. Maybe somewhere where you can relax and rewind for a bit." The Doctor said as he opened the TARDIS door for Rose.

"Sounds good to me Doctor."


End file.
